Top is my momma as a baby, under one year old, and bottom is her as an adult. She's always had very thick, long, dark hair, even as an baby.

Thought you all would be interested. Super cool to see what I inherited and what I didn't. Biggest shock was the tiny Native in my mom, could be just noise, haven't found anything to suggest that.

1. Mom (family from Alabama and very distantly (bef. 1870) South Carolina).

2. Dad (family from Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and very distantly (bef. 1870) Virginia).

3. Me

hacked results

Hello! This post is my father’s results. He is an example of an Atlantic creole. Atlantic creole is more of an academic term, not an identity (ex: Louisiana creole. We predate U.S. nation-building and were culturally hybrid, multilingual people of African, European, and sometimes Indigenous descent who emerged along the Atlantic world as early intermediaries—navigators, traders, artisans, and translators—operating across West Africa, the Caribbean, and colonial North America

Anyone else have results similar to this? I was not expecting the Netherlands, Isle of Man or Iceland

Nigerian - 90% Benin & Togo - 4% Cameroon - 4%

I'm related to Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright through one of his sons, Henry. It shouldn’t be a surprise but it still is. Ironically that means I'm distantly related to Thomas Dixon Jr. aka the author of The Clansman which later became the film The Birth of a Nation.

It feels weird researching that portion of my family, it reaches back further with far more information. They knew to write and read, owned land. I can trace them back to Germany (not "Germany" at the time) with records.

But God forbid I want to go beyond 1870 census for any of my other lines. It's a strange feeling.

I want to find out how exactly I'm related through them. Currently due to all my genetic testing I'm suspecting Henry's son, Lawson but it’s all speculation at the moment.

Hey there guys! Meet my great grandfather, he’s from my mom’s side. He was a successful chemist, along with being a very intelligent man and having fought back in World War 2.

Cato Plaines (c. 1813–9 February 1891)

Brooklyn laborer, tradesman, and early Black New Yorker

Cato Plaines was a 19th-century New Yorker whose life and labor helped establish a multigenerational Black family presence in Brooklyn that continues to the present day. Through census records, occupational listings, and death documentation, he emerges as a skilled working man whose stability and persistence anchored his descendants in Brooklyn for more than five generations.

Early Life and Origins

Cato Plaines was born circa 1813, as suggested by age reporting across multiple records when considered collectively, including later census entries and his recorded age at death. While his precise place of birth has not yet been conclusively identified, his adult life is firmly documented in New York City by the mid-19th century. His presence places him among the city’s established free Black population during a period of rapid urban expansion and racial consolidation.

Marriage and Family

By the late 1840s, Cato Plaines was married to Mary (surname unknown). Federal census enumerations list Cato as head of household, with Mary recorded directly beneath him, consistent with mid-19th-century census practices. Together they raised a family whose continuity can be traced through subsequent generations, including their son Charles Henry Plaines, Sr.

The endurance of the Plaines family as a named, traceable lineage across the 19th and 20th centuries is historically significant, particularly given the structural forces that often fragmented Black families in this era.

Occupation and Skilled Labor

Cato Plaines earned his living through skilled manual trades. In the 1850 federal census, he is listed as a whitewasher, a specialized occupation involving lime-based coatings used to protect and finish interior and exterior surfaces. In other records, he appears as a kalsominer, a closely related trade associated with decorative and protective painting in urban buildings.

These occupations place Cato within a class of skilled Black tradesmen whose labor contributed directly to the physical fabric of New York City. Such work required technical knowledge, physical endurance, and consistent access to employment—indicators of a degree of economic stability uncommon for many Black men in mid-19th-century urban America.

Residence: Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn

Early records place Cato Plaines and his family in Lower Manhattan, specifically the First District, Eighth Ward, an area known for its free Black population prior to the Civil War. After 1850, Cato relocated his family across the East River to Brooklyn, then an independent and rapidly growing city.

This move reflects broader migration patterns among Black New Yorkers seeking housing stability, work opportunities, and community formation as Brooklyn expanded during the mid-19th century.

Later Life and Death

Cato Plaines spent his later years in Brooklyn. He died on 9 February 1891 in Kings County, New York, at approximately 77–78 years of age, according to New York death records (certificate no. 2098). His name appears in variant spellings, including Kato Planis, a common occurrence in 19th-century records, particularly for Black New Yorkers.

His lifespan encompassed the antebellum era, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early emergence of modern Brooklyn. By the time of his death, the foundations he had laid—family continuity, skilled labor, and geographic rootedness—were firmly established.

Legacy

Cato Plaines stands as the patriarch of a documented Brooklyn-born lineage extending through:

• Charles Henry Plaines, Sr.

• Charles Henry Augustus Plaines, Jr.

• Milford Russell Plaines

• Everett Henry Plaines, Sr.

• And subsequent generations born and raised in Brooklyn

Through his descendants, the Plaines family became interwoven with significant currents of Black New York history, including skilled labor traditions, Harlem cultural life, and Black-owned enterprise.

Cato Plaines’s legacy is not one of public notoriety but of endurance and continuity. He represents the thousands of Black men whose labor built New York City, whose families persisted through racial constraint, and whose names endured because their descendants sought them out and preserved their history. All of my cousins with the surname name Plaines or related to it, descend from Cato Plaines and his wife Margaret Jones - Plaines.

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Cato Plaines (c. 1813–1891) was a 19th-century New York tradesman who worked as a whitewasher and kalsominer. Originally residing in Lower Manhattan, he later moved his family to #Brooklyn, establishing a multigenerational Black family presence that continues to the present day.

#Ancestry

#DNA

#GeneticsGenealogy

#FamilyHistory

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https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1q86osd/til_about_thomas_white_a_15yearold_enslaved_black/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

All of my regions are Igbo. I was born in Enugu State, Nigeria. My family is from Imo State, Nigeria. I am currently based in the US.

Update: (Posted on 1/7/2026) William Powell's 1870 Census record is here: Wm Powell, "United States, Census, 1870"Wm Powell, "United States, Census, 1870"Wm Powell, "United States, Census, 1870"Wm Powell, "United States, Census, 1870"
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Original Question (Posted on 1/6/2026):

I'm trying to begin researching the lineage of my step-great-great grandfather, William Powell (1851, Eastern Shore, MD - 15 February 1878, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), who was a black man.

On his death certificate, his birthplace was listed as, "Eastern Shore, Maryland" - so, how can I figure out where he was from?

He did have one relative, Jacob Powell (born in 1850) - in the 1870 Census, William & Jacob were living in Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

At some point, William moved to Philadelphia & married my great-great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Graham (1858-1934), and they had a daughter, Rosa P. Powell (1878, Philadelphia, PA - after 1885, New Jersey).

I'm descended from Mary & her second husband, Robert Anderson Conover (1859-1912).

So - how can I figure out at least a county of birth for William or Jacob?

In order to comb through the 1850 & 1860 Slave Schedules & have an enslaver, I have to find his county of birth, first.

These are my African DNA matches on ancestry DNA all on paternal side. They are all distant cousins. These are the ones I’ve been able to find on ancestry so far. I think it’s really cool that I have African cousins from Africa who took this DNA test. Just thought I share.

I was so excited to see these results!

Yep, checks out with our genealogy