What's in a Name?

A Guest Blog for Black History Month by Willie Brooks

(Note: Willie Brooks is a VISTA volunteer in Indianapolis, Indiana.)

Black History Month offers unique challenges for African-Americans who want to engage in genealogical research. The word surname is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the name borne in common by members of a family.” More commonly referred to as a last name here in the United States, a surname not only connects living family members to one another, but provides a link to those ancestors who came before you – if indeed those links can be followed.

Figure 1: Shows my sample family tree on an ancestry website

Asking a person about their ancestry can often induce a sense of pride amongst people. There are a number of services today that help people learn the stories of their ancestors; for instance, where they lived, what they did for a living, how they died. Today many companies offer genealogy services, which provide historical records, help build family trees, and connect people with the kind of familial knowledge that would otherwise elude them.

Figure 2: Depicts the logo from popular ancestry website Ancestry.com

One of the most well-known online services, Ancestry.com, founded in 1983, celebrated its two millionth user in 2012, and boasts that its users have access to over 12 billion historical records and images from more than 40 countries, dating back to 1270 C.E.

February is Black History Month, a time not only to honor outstanding members of the Black community who have contributed to the historical narrative that is uniquely American, but also a time to reflect on the many sacrifices of the Black community that led to the present day. But knowledge of our genetic past becomes much more difficult as you move beyond more recent history and approach the historical period where slavery was once commonplace.

Figure 3: The image above shows the grotesque manner in which slaves were packed into slave ships to maximize space.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1500’s-1900’s) displaced over twelve million Africans over its duration, and while many of them were sent to other countries that also engaged in the slave trade, the total slave population in the United States reached four million by the end of the Civil War. 

I, personally, am disconnected from the story of my ancestors. Members of my family believe that my great grandparents might have been slaves at some point, but unfortunately I might never know for sure. A stolen history has become an ugly, inconvenient truth, one that is unfortunately all too commonplace in my community.  The rich ancestral histories that are relished by many are forever lost to some. For many African-Americans, our surname serves as a subtle reminder of that darker time in the history of this great nation, but thanks to our predecessors who fought for freedom and equality, we now have the ability to write our own chapter and give our names a new meaning.