From: heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath)
Subject: African-American Genealogy, Part II
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 01:24:01 GMT



	I thought I'd post the most recent news of my quest for
information about my ancestors, since people seemed to be intersted. 
	First of all, let me say that I've been rather lucky with the
small amount of work I've done. Twice I've gone with a hunch and come
up with the answers I was looking for!  
	I went to the library, and took with me the pages I'd copied
from the 1870 Census Index, those pages which contained the Heaths.
I'd already traced my great-great grandfather (born 1847) to the Harts
District of Talbot County, so I sat down and highlighted all the black
and white Heaths who were in that distric of the county. I then wrote
down all the names of the white Heaths who were in that district,
noting that the oldest of them in 1870 was John Heath, who was 76 at
the time of the Census. I found a copy of the 1850 Census report of
free persons in Talbot County, and set out looking for John Heath
because I assumed if there was a white family of Heaths in that
district he would most likely be its patriarch. Sure enough, I found
John Heath listed as the head of the family, and beneath his were the
names of his children (plus one name I was later able to identify as a
spouse of one of his sons).  I check the names against the 1870 list
and found that some of his children had moved to other areas of the
county.
	Next I discovered a 4 volume set of books on the HIstory of
Talbot County, which gave a district-by-distric account of the county
history. Sure enough I looked up the section of the Harts District,
and I discovered the John Burge Heath Plantation.  The passage gave
the location of the Plantation house (GA highway 90, four miles out of
Talbotton).  John Burge Heath, in 1840, owned 17 males slaves and 12
female slaves, 20 of whom were feild hands (farming cotton, most
likely). Across the street from the house is the cemetary where the
slaves of the family were buried. John Heath's family was originally
from Virginia. 
	So I have found the family who owned my family. And I know
where I got my surname now.  
	There is something about doing black genealogy. We don't often
know much beyond the last couple of generations of our families, and
there is something exciting about pulling back the curtain of time and
finding out what my ancestors lives were probably like. However, its a
sobering moment to confirm that one's ancestor was indeed a slave, and
to pull back a curtain you thought had been sewn shut by ignorance,
enforced illiteracy and slavery, to find an ancestor in chains. But I
guess that is par for the course. Instead I choose to take pride in
the fact that all of those generations persevered. Else I would not be
here.
	So my next step is to start checking wills. I have a definite
family to check on, and I know where to find them. I'll also start
looking for any other papers that might exist and that might give me
clues. 
	Funny. That plantation is within driving distance of where I
am now, and I believe that John Burge Heath's house is still standing.
And some of my relatives are probably burried across the street from
that house. Sounds like I'll be taking a roadtrip sooner or later. I
doubt I'll find any markers on the slaves graves, but I'd just like to
see the place, and perhaps stand on the land my great-great
grandfather worked as a slave.
	More reports as more progress is made.


-- 
"Black men loving black men is THE revolutionary act!"
			-Joseph Beam_
Terrance Heath 
heath@athena.cs.uga.edu
Newsgroups: soc.roots