As a student of family history, I’ve learned that “old white guys” like me generally know next to nothing about African American ancestry. This isn’t to say that we can’t follow a census record, collect a newspaper clipping, or attempt to extrapolate the identities behind the well-hidden faces in the 1850 Slave Schedules. But let’s face it: that’s about where it stops. White researchers often fail to grasp a true understanding of the Black American experience (or of any people of color). In terms of genealogical research, this becomes especially relevant with the addition of oral histories and the role they play in uncovering historical truth.

The importance of oral histories and the truths they contain became very clear to me recently, when I was asked to delve into a friend and co-worker’s very unknown family tree. My co-worker (we’ll call her Colette for privacy’s sake) is of mixed race, and knew little about her ancestry on any side. She made it clear to me, however, that she wasn’t really all that curious about her white ancestry. Rather, Colette wanted me to focus on her enslaved ancestors and find any possible connections to free persons of color. Enter one Old White Guy trying to figure things out.

I was fortunate. I soon discovered that Colette’s African American family lines were already well-researched, and was able to follow existing trees back to several ancestors who had worked the Underground Railroad. Going further back than that elicited a slew of challenges. Nevertheless, I quickly and excitedly assembled what information I could for her. At nearly sixty years old, I hated that Colette had spent so much of her life feeling disconnected from her own family history.

At this point in my tale of discovery, I’d like to introduce to you a couple of Colette’s enslaved ancestors. What I’m about to share here are not necessarily “slave narratives” that have been written down by the subject, as you might be imagining. These are derivative accounts, oral histories given by enslaved people which were then handed down through time, likely via the owner of the individual in question. While there can be many “holes” in this kind of tale, I think you will find that these narratives connect Colette to the complex fabric of American history.

Lewis Adams, 1785-1864, is a well-documented great-great-great-great-grandfather of Colette, a wonderful fact of which she had no prior knowledge. Ample evidence shows that Lewis Adams was an impressive individual who gave aid to the Underground Railroad and furthered the cause of freedom and emancipation.¹ As if that weren’t enough, I was also drawn to some alleged ancestry contained in his family’s oral histories. According to these traditions, Lewis Adams may have been the son Samuel Adams. Yes, that Sam Adams—the Revolutionary leader who appears on our beer bottles to this day.² His mother was an enslaved woman named Mary Sibley, or Sibbah.³ Lewis was sent by Samuel to live on the plantation of his kinsman William Adams in Virginia.

The first part of the oral history I found was written down in 1931, likely derived from a formerly enslaved man’s narrative which had been around at least since Lewis’s death in 1864:

“Louis Adams [sic] was born in or near Louisville Kentucky, between the years 1780-1785. His mother’s name was Mary Sibley. [“Sibbah”] She being a slave belonged to Samuel Adams a United States Senator. Louis [sic] taken his Master’s name who was also [sic] Louis father. He was of a disposition that his master could not keep around the rest of the slaves, so sent Louis and his mother north with a reasonable allotment to live on.” ⁴

The second part reveals a portion of a 2006 investigation by a descendant of Lewis Adams:

“…My connection seems to be through Samuel [Adams] IV, the surgeon. He served in the Rev. War and settled in VA, the area that eventually became KY, as a major landholder following the War. Family history states Samuel as being the father of a child, Lewis, born in 1785 to a slave girl named Sibbah. Samuel died in 1788, Lewis and his mother went to a William Adams in Shelby Co., KY. They, Lewis & Sibbah, were manumitted in 1813 and migrated to Champaign County, Ohio.”⁵

The author of the 2006 portion differentiates between each of the relevant “Samuel Adamses” of the day, and ultimately concludes that William Adams of Shelby County was likely Lewis’s real father. He is very clear to state that no one may ever be able to conclusively prove Lewis’s paternity. I found no source to conclude that Samuel Adams IV ever settled in Virginia or Kentucky, but I didn’t investigate this claim fully. However, what’s interesting here is that we have an oral history set down seventy years after Lewis’s death (and carried on to this day) that still puts forth the idea that Lewis Adams, a free man of color and a transporter of enslaved refugees on the Underground Railroad, might also be a direct descendant of Samuel Adams, a man who signed the Declaration of Independence. All I could say was, wow!

Another figure of note in Colette’s ancestry is James Gales (ca. 1782-1881), once considered to be one of the longest-lived persons in the state of Ohio.⁶ James Gales is Colette’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, and along with his astounding longevity, he brings along his own set of potential famous associations. An oral history set down in his obituary from a century and a half ago reflects that he was “…several year’s [sic] in the service in the family of George Washington, and [of] his acquaintance with Lafayette.”

The account of Mr. Gales’ time in the service of George Washington is almost immediately refuted by other printed sources of the day.⁷ However, these gainsayers offer no source to refute Mr. Gales’ history put forth in his 1881 obituary. Interestingly, the verbiage varies in different obituaries as to whether or not Mr. James Gales was “a servant to Washington” or had “year’s service in the family of George Washington”—a much broader picture. As there is a seven-year-old boy “James” in Washington’s 1799 list of enslaved people , I wondered if any of James Gales’s accounts might contain some truth after all. So I did what the gainsayers of 1881 should have bothered to do—I looked at the Washington family tree. Almost immediately, my eyes were drawn to the married name of his paternal grandmother: Mildred (Warner) (Washington) Gale.⁸

Consider only the fact of James’s surname. Then consider that the wealthy Gale family was entrenched in Virginia early on and were well-known associates of the Washingtons. When you consider this, the idea that James Gales was “…several year’s in the service in the family of George Washington” doesn’t seem quite so farfetched. This statement could easily include Washington’s extended family, perhaps even the people who were likely James’s own family: the Gales.

In any event, the narratives which have been left behind validate the idea that Colette’s ancestral ties connect her to a larger American past. These oral histories connect her to a hero of the Underground Railroad, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and perhaps even the most famous founding father of them all. More important than “certain” proof, which is likely lost to the ages, these tales reveal the complex story of Colette’s family, and reflect the legacy of the Black American experience to which she is connected.

 

Notes

1 See: “The Underground Railroad in Champaign County, Illinois (and the) Lewis Adams Marker” located at: the intersection of U.S. 68 and Lewis B Moore Drive (County Route 55), on the left when traveling north on U.S. 68 in Freedom Grove Park

2 Per Wikipedia: [Samuel] “Adams [one of the founding fathers] inherited his father’s brewery on King Street (modern-day State Street). Some historians say he was a brewer, while others describe him as a maltster.”

3 See: FindAGrave.com memorial no. 8249496 for a brief biography of her life and a picture of her headstone.

4 AfriGeneas Slave Research Forum at https://www.afrigeneas.com/ and as per Art Thomas, Sept. 10, 2000

5 AfriGeneas Slave Research Forum at https://www.afrigeneas.com/ and as per Art Thomas, Dec. 11, 2006

6 The Canton Daily Repository, Monday, Mar 28, 1881, Canton, OH Page: 1 as shown

7 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Saturday, Mar 26, 1881, Cincinnati, OH Page: 1 states: “Another remarkable incident is that he was never a servant to Washington.”

8 Mildred (Warner) (Washington) Gale 1771-1701

9 Except in the refutation of it found in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette mentioned above.