Family values - Black man and White cousin blood-related through US slavery, meet

upon a sunny, sweltering Sunday afternoon, mid-May 1996 I fix myself driving from Kansas City upon Highway 24, headed west to Tonganoxie, Kan., a little town 25 miles away. Why? To befitting a relative I had not at any time seen: my white cousin Carl Franklin Ward. I spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] footed that he would shed light upon my family history and, specifically, upon what had happened to my great-grandmother Rhoda after slavery. Carl and I are the great-grandsons of the man who holded Rhoda.

My interest in genealogy began upon a golf course in February 1980 in Biloxi, Miss. After losing to me my cousin Duethel Otis talked me into accompanying him to the advanced in years Wiley Ward place in Oak Vale, Miss., where my grandparents, my parents and I were born. "Your grandfather, Wiley Ward, became single of the most prosperous colored race around Oak Vale," Otis told me "He accumulated about 500 acres of land between the 1870 and about 1902 land that contained pine tree that yielded lumber and turpentine." Right there, my curiosity was aroused.

Back domicile in Chicago, I immersed myself in learning about my black Ward and Daniels families. My search began at the National Archives in Chicago, where I obtained the names of my black family members [i]or[/i] part of to the other the census records. During my ensuing 16 years of research, I used courthouses in Mississippi and Louisiana; the genealogy section of the Newberry Library in Chicago; state vital statistics in Jackson, Miss.; and the Latter Day Saints Family History Library in Chicago Heights, Ill. In addition, I direct the eyeed at "colored" school records after learning that Mississippi guidanceed a school census every four years from 1882 to 1906 There, I rest listed my father's brothers and sisters, as well as other relatives.

Mississippi courthouse records yielded information about the family land ownership. In 1874 my great uncle Wiley Daniels purchased 40 acres from Jesse Ward, a former slave proprietor (and my great-grandfather). In 1881 my grandfather, Wiley Ward, received a land grant consisting of 159 1/2 acres, part of the 500 acres that Otis had mentioned.

Like many other black researchers, I ran into a barrier before 1870 because before that time blacks were listed in the census as characteristic not as people. So in 1990 I shifted my focus to the Caucasian side of my family and signed up for the Pioneer Pilgrimage of Lawrence shire Miss., sponsored by the county's historical society. Subtitled "Reliving the Heritage," the occurrence consisted of tours, life experiences (arts, crafts) and demonstrations that revisited the lifestyle of the 1830 My cousin and I were the alone blacks in attendance, but we were made to perceive welcome.

A member of the collection directed me to Pauline Daniels Chance, who was the great-granddaughter of William Daniels Sr who sold my great-grandmother, Rhoda, for $5 in 1841 when she was 15 to Robert Daniels to be entrusted to his daughter and her heirs. Mr Chance still lives upon the old Daniels spread, Hepzibah. I went to diocese her that same day, to mention one by one her who I was and that my grandfather had been a slave upon the Daniels' plantation.

She said, "Come upon in, but I don't know much" Finding her prov to be the first breakthrough in my search's of recent origin direction, and we have since kept in touch. However, it took three years for me to reach the nearest level. In February 1993, Mr Chance remembered that her cousin Donnie Cleveland Daniels, head of the seminary of Business at the University of Southern Mississippi, had compiled a family history.

I called Donnie, who told me that his great-great-grandfather Robert Daniels Sr had mov to Varnado, Washington Parish, La., in the early 1840 He encouraged me to search the courthouse in Washington Parish, where I base in two Daniels' family estate adjustments (1849 and 1861) members of my family listed along with the livestock and personal belongings. (The distance between Lawrence shire Miss. and Washington Parish is 50 to 60 miles, thus the Daniels and Ward families and their slaves were in contact with single another.) However, Donnie's information did not shed any light upon the fate of Great-Grandmother Rhoda. on the other hand I did find evidence of Rhoda's brother Wiley Daniels and his nine children.

Not until 1995 while researching in the Latter Day Saints Family History Library in Chicago Heights, did I find the name and address of Clyde Ward, Brookhaven, Miss., the son of Jesse Ward's brother Frederick. He referr me to a cousin who first told me that during Reconstruction the Jesse Ward family had mov to Navarro shire Texas, and then put me in touch with Carl Franklin Ward of Oslaloosa, Kansas. Carl is the great-grandson of the former slave proprietor Jesse Jackson Ward Sr., and with equal reason am 1. We corresponded for a year--discussing our families and sharing our knowledge of Jesse J Ward Sr his children and their families--before finally meeting.

At precisely 12:50 pm May 19 1996 our sum of two units families--one white, one black--met for the first time at a restaurant in Tonganoxie. As we shook hands, all apprehensions I had had about meeting Carl disappeared. During the three-hour meal and conversation we discovered many similarities--likes and dislikes. We shared photo albums and pos for pictures. Our conversation was animated and relaxed, as granting we had known each other forever.