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02/28/2007: "Linked by Blood"

Thurmond's daughter: Sharpton "overreacted" - Race & Ethnicity - MSNBC.com

Professional genealogists working for Ancestry.com found that Sharpton's great-grandfather Coleman Sharpton was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.

Some people might find this supremely hysterical. The truth is, there are all kind of odd coincidences in our family histories. Do you remember all of those history classes you took in high school and college? Well, we are the descendants of all those poor saps we studied, like it or not.

The Sharpton/Thurmond relation is one of those "well, doesn't that figure" type of relations. Here's a question that will really blow your mind: how many Americans are the descendants of both slaves and slave owners?

Here are some nuggets from my own family history.

1. There are three instances in my 19th Century Prater Kentucky ancestry where distant cousins married. Whoops, Heather told me to keep that to myself.

2. I probably am the descendant of slave owners. My 17th Century Prater/Prather ancestors were wealthy Virginia landowners originally from England.

3. My father tells stories of our Buck ancestors who came over from Germany in the late 19th Century. My GG-Grandfather Buck, along with at least two siblings, came over. What no one ever mentioned was my GGG-Grandmother Buck. I found her in two different sets of US Census records. She lived in Grayson, KY, with one of her sons, but I have no clue where she is buried. That would be a nice little piece of work if I could find her grave.

4. There are four cemetaries in Grayson, KY, with my ancestors. One cemetary is the size of my living room, and contains five generations of Prater's and Buck's. One is hidden on a hill overlooking Interstate 64, and is accessable only on foot. Another has a small stoned-off area with Buck ancestors. My GGG-Grandmother could be there in that little group, but in either an unmarked grave, or under a tombstone long since illegible.

5. I am the descendant of First Millenium Welsh royalty. Kneel, you heathen.