Following Clues, Finding Answers
Jacqueline Campbell first became interested in family history during a high school genetics project. Knowing the odds were against her and that finding her slave ancestors could be tricky, Jacqueline began researching her African American roots.
She searched the 1880 U.S. Federal Census for Texas and found her 20-year-old great-great-grandmother, Hettie Whiteside Johnson, listed along with her husband and infant daughter. The young family was living with Hettie's parents, whose names Jacqueline had previously not known. Using these clues from the census, Jacqueline attempted to find Hettie's parents in actual slave records.
"This being Texas, I knew I would have to find documentation of the last slave owner," said Jacqueline. She began with a white family who shared Hettie's maiden name, Whiteside, and who lived in the same Texas town as Hettie did in 1880.
Jacqueline traced this Whiteside family to an 1852 probate court record. Reading through the inventories of the deceased's belongings, Jacqueline found the names of both Hettie's father and mother. At last - proof of her family's slave history. In all the legal wrangling, she also found Hettie's husband's last name and a new lead to follow.
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