Understanding all of the tricky issues with surnames when conducting genealogical research can either boost or derail a search. In certain cases, for example with an uncommon surname or with a family that has lived in the same location for generations, searches can be straightforward.
However, as is the case in many situations, with very common surnames and families that have migrated across the country, close attention to detail is needed to make sure the researcher stays on the right track.
When Africans were enslaved and brought to America, any identifiers that could have tied them to their homeland or families were broken. It’s estimated that less than 500,000 Africans who survived the Middle Passage arrived in the Colonies as enslaved individuals.
Naming, particularly after emancipation, was a complex matter influenced by newfound agency, and the reasons behind choosing a particular surname varied. But the conclusion was always informed by a medley of reverence and power.
“To refer to a person by their given name is to recognize the individual as a person,” wrote Reinette F. Jones, a librarian at the University of Kentucky whose research includes Black families and enslavement in the state. “When African Americans gained their freedom from enslavement, they also gained the freedom to name themselves and their children.”
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The Erasure and Reclamation of Names
Enslavement, a centurieslong campaign designed to strip its victims of any essence, both erased names and severed family histories. The status of an enslaved individual was based on the status of their mother. If the mother was enslaved, then all of her children were enslaved.
Before emancipation, those fleeing an enslaver would change their name to remain anonymous. After emancipation, once they could formally establish who they were absent of the enslaver’s influence, many Black folks chose the surname Freeman or Freedman. Others went with Washington, Williams, Brown or Johnson - surnames typical before enslavement that remain ubiquitous today.
Some newly freed Black folks who could read chose unique names they saw in newspapers despite lacking a connection to that family. Some named themselves after aspirational Black figures like Frederick Douglass.
Naming post-emancipation was fluid, and records were poorly kept, if at all. There are accounts of people having one surname in 1870 and changing it by the next census alongside shifts in spelling as generations went on.
People seemed to feel both the freedom to push aside anything related to enslavers or to keep given surnames because of some connection to them.
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Much of what is known about Black surnames come from Civil War records. Formerly enslaved Africans were, typically, enlisted by white military administrators who filled out their initial documents. Colored Troops often had to explain any name changes to a white special investigator.
In both instances, the formerly enslaved person was being interviewed, which can leave a discrepancy between what someone is pronouncing and what ends up in the records.
It gets trickier if the enlistee is known by their enslaver’s last name but identifies themselves differently, said Brandi Brimmer, an associate professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s African, African American and diaspora studies department.
“There’s tremendous variation and pattern,” Brimmer said. “It’s a moment where people who are coming from an oral culture are now having to engage with government bureaucracies and having to engage with surnames that certainly have meaning within their communities, but now have implications.”
Meaghan Siekman, a genealogist of the Newbury Street Press with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, described a case where the individual she researched took a surprising surname. She eventually learned that someone with that last name previously sold their family. While the family likely adopted the surname, she said, over the course of “a couple of generations, even during slavery,” it became their own.
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Challenging Misconceptions
But it’s a common misunderstanding that newly freed Black folks always took the name of their enslaver. Unless the surname is unique, explained genealogist Kenyatta Berry, that likely wasn’t the case.
“If you know that your ancestors took the last name of their enslaver, what’s the relationship between them and their enslaver?” Berry, who is also the host of “Genealogy Roadshow” on PBS, said. “Did they take that name because they grew up on that plantation? Or is there some type of family relationship to why they chose that surname after emancipation?”
Take Paris Simkins, a South Carolina State lawmaker during Reconstruction, whose father was his enslaver. Berry, who is researching Simkins, said keeping his father’s last name could have been a way to deny his father the ability to wash his hands of how he treated the people he enslaved.
“By having that name and knowing that his father was from one of the prominent families in that county, that was a way to say, ‘You’re not gonna forget that. Even though my mother was sexually assaulted, I’m part of this family,’” she said.
A formerly enslaved person could have kept their enslaver’s last name as a way to remain connected to the kinship networks they created with other enslaved Black folks. Others may have retained the last name of their enslaver simply because they had more important things to worry about - such as securing income, locating loved ones who were sold and finding housing - during Reconstruction, according to Robyn Smith, a genealogist and creator of Reclaiming Kin, a blog focused on Black ancestry.
But it was more common for a previously enslaved person to take their mother or father’s last name depending on which parent they knew, Smith said. If their parents were married, they would take their father’s surname. When enslaved folks were sold or bequeathed through the enslaver’s family, they would, in most cases, only know their mother’s last name.
But some would choose a new surname entirely.
“That’s something you have control over,” Berry said. “Before, as a Black woman, you didn’t have control over your own agency of your body. You didn’t have control over whether or not your children would still be there. You didn’t have control over if your husband or partner, that you were with, would be there. And, as a man, you didn’t have control over your family. You couldn’t protect your family as much because everything was at the will of the enslaver.”
“Choosing your surname gives you that power to say, ‘This is what I’m gonna be called from now on,’” she added.
As with so much of Black history of that era, the very real threat of deadly violence also contributed to name changes.
While looking through the National Archives in early 2020, Smith found a Civil War pension record for a United States Colored Troops veteran named Abram Sherrod. The special investigator assigned to Sherrod’s claim in the mid-1890s didn’t understand why the man changed his last name to James after the war.
In 1895, Julia Pearson, the wife of a man who served with Sherrod, told the investigator it was a survival tactic.
“I can give the reason for him and many others changing their names,” Pearson told the investigator. “It was for this reason to save their lives in the year of 1867 the CluClux being very bad in Bolivar Co., Mississippi killing all of the old soldiers they could find that had been in the Army. He and many others changed their names to their father’s names to keep from being known.”
Many enslaved people adopted their own last names before emancipation in order to evade capture or to establish their own family connections independent of their enslavers. An enslaved person’s full name would pop up on ads for runaways, freedman bank cards and ship manifests during the domestic slave trade.
In one instance Smith found, an enslaver listed the surnames in an estate inventory - a rare occurrence. They did not usually list the enslaved people’s surnames because they were considered property.
Some naming practices demonstrate “that the families were working to stay together even against some of the tides that were trying to rip them apart,” Siekman said.
Black folks commonly named their children after other family members. The conditions of enslavement allowed for someone to be sold as many as six times. Naming - whether it was someone’s first or last - was a strategy used by enslaved people to maintain familial ties despite being forcibly separated.
In fact, Brimmer noted that finding a family with a range of surnames likely indicated family separation under enslavement.
Genealogical Research Tips
When researching your enslaved ancestors, it will likely not be as easy to find information about their parents, birth dates or birth locations. Often times, enslaved individuals did not know their birthdates.
Do not assume that your ancestor had the same surname as their last enslaver. There could be a variety of reasons why your ancestor selected a particular surname. They could have taken the surname of a previous enslaver, the enslaver of a parent, or just picked a surname. It was not uncommon for African American ancestors to use multiple surnames throughout their lives.
As with anything, there is always an exception to the rule. If your ancestor had an unusual or uncommon surname, they might have taken the name of their last enslaver. For unusual surnames, focus on the county where your ancestors lived in 1870.
Make a list of white individuals in the county with the same surname. Federal Census Free Population and Slave Schedules. Were the individuals on your list enslavers? How many people did they enslave? What was the value of their personal property? I suggest creating a spreadsheet to keep track of this information. Repeat this process for 1850 and other census records.
Once you have identified the last enslaver, or narrowed down candidates for the last enslaver, review records related to slavery and Reconstruction for each candidate. Additional Freedmen’s Bureau records to explore include education records, marriage records, registers of complaints, indentures, registers of labor contracts, and correspondence.
For both large and small plantations, wills, probate records, inventories, account books, deeds, and tax records can help you discover your enslaved ancestors. Typically, larger plantations kept records regarding expenses for clothing or medical care, births and deaths, runaways, and the names of the enslaved on each plantation, if the planter had multiple plantations. For these enslavers, manuscript collections, business, and personal papers can prove to be valuable resources.
Some enslavers freed or manumitted their enslaved prior to emancipation. These papers may be found in family papers, state and local libraries, and the county court house.
Starting your family history research can be overwhelming and scary because you never know what you’re going to find.
Parents, grandparents, and other family members may wonder why you want to start digging into the past. Are you looking to uncover family secrets? As they say, let the past stay in the past.
How do you get started with your family history? Write a brief two to three-page autobiographical sketch-this will help you capture what you know, and what you don’t yet know about your heritage. Using the gaps you find in your autobiography as starting points, interview family members for more information.
Understanding the enslaved community is essential when researching your family. This year is the 400th anniversary of the first Africans to arrive in America at Jamestown, Virginia.
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All of this is part of the story of how free people shaped their lives. “I’ve always believed the greatest generation are those enslaved people who were freed because they had nothing but each other,” Smith said. “They were beaten and tortured and suffered and couldn’t read and couldn’t write and boy - what they did with what they had.
| Year | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1619 | First Africans Arrive in Jamestown | Marks the beginning of the presence of Africans in America |
| 1863 | Emancipation Proclamation | Allowed formerly enslaved people to choose their own identities |
| Post-Emancipation | Surname Selection | Newly freed individuals chose surnames based on various factors |
