I'm a Freedman Descendant!

I don't have a foreign accent, yet I am often asked where I am from. Because of my face, with its ambiguous ethnicity, people often assume I'm from some other country, or at least one generation away from Ellis Island or South-of-the-Border, when actually my ancestors have been in America for many generations; some, like Libbie Jones' family, were here long before the Mayflower!

Gr. gr. grandmother 
Libbie Jones: according
to family stories, she was
from an Indian reservation
near the Canadian border.

So when I think about going back to the old country, it's not to Italy or Nigeria or even Germany (where the most recent immigrant, my mother's grandmother, was from.)

Emma Keifer, from Germany

Since I started this geneological journey, the three places I've planned to visit were:  Chicago, Illinois,  Henderson, N. Carolina and upstate New York.    And the plan for the Summer of 2016 was to check out cemeteries, historical societies and courthouses in places like Unadilla and Norwich. And of course dear old Roscoe.


Well, a funny thing happened in January of this year.  I was trying to find information about my gr. gr. grandfather - the guy with the Civil War badge in the photo that has been in my family forever.

So I Googled Samuel Jones and up popped a photo of hia gravestone!!   It was part of an article in the December 2015 issue of the USCT Civil War Digest, out of Hartwick College in Oneonta NY.  And the entire article about him!!   And that's how I discovered the USCT (United States Colored Troops Institute)/American Society of Freedmen Descendants. I contacted the director of the institute, we stayed in touch, sharing photos and information about Samuel Jones; he sent me back issues of the magazine and I learned tons of information about the Underground RR and upstate NY's role in the abolitionist movement.  I was inducted into the Society of Freedmen Descendants and invited to attend the institute's October conference!

So… instead of a summer trip to NY, we 're going on my "roots road trip" in the!!   I'm super excited.  Got my Power Point presentation ready.  Gonna share my photo collection.  Going to Niagara Falls (never been), then rent a car and head south east to the Finger Lakes (never been), then to Roscoe where I'm going to meet with a local historian with the Sullivan County Historical Society, then to Oneonta for the conference.

I am super excited!!!!