Uncategorized

How Roots Inspired Me

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 19 Comments

“My name is Kunta Kinte.”

This week I have been watching the remake of Alex Haley’s Roots, airing on the History Channel.  It’s brilliant.  Watching this updated version has me reflecting back on the original version which I watched as a child. I didn’t realize it back then, but it planted a seed in me which has now blossomed into a full blown passion (some would say obsession) to trace my own family roots back to Africa.  The idea that Alex Haley could trace his ancestry back to a noble Mandinka warrior named Kunta Kinte was so powerful to me that it’s inspired me throughout my life to try to do the same.

Roots is also representative of the significant challenges descendants of enslaved people in America face trying to trace their ancestry.  Within a year of Roots being published, Haley’s masterpiece faced significant scrutiny.  Historians and genealogists uncovered evidentiary flaws in the family history Haley details in his book, calling into question whether the book should be treated more as a work of historical fiction rather than one of historical scholarship.

Ever since I watched Roots, I’ve been on a quest to explore and identify my connection to Africa.  The loftiest aspiration I ever let my mind consider was the potential to trace back to a named ancestor in Africa.  To identify my family’s Kunta Kinte.  My current research leads me to believe that his name could be Emanuell Cambow (Cumbo).

My quest to uncover my African roots started in 1995 when I travelled to Johannesburg South Africa for a year while working for Bain and Company.  It had always been my dream to live and travel on the African continent. Within a few days of arriving I struck up a conversation with a South African acquaintance of Zulu ancestry.  I asked him, “Hey if I were walking down the street in Johannesburg, what tribe would people think I belonged to?”  He chuckled, and then politely responded, “Here in South Africa you would be considered Indian or Cape Coloured.”.  I was a bit shocked.  I am African American, but I guess I didn’t look particularly African, to him at least.

My journey continued with the advent of DNA testing which offers African Americans the intoxicating possibility of leapfrogging research brick walls created by slavery to connect to African roots by analyzing the family history etched within our DNA.  There are two flavors of DNA testing currently available – Haplogroup and Autosomal.

Haplogroup is the term scientists use to describe your ancient ancestral clan such as Anglo-Saxon, Ashkenazi Jew or in the case of Kunta Kinte, Mandinka.  Haplogroup DNA tests reveal ancient or “deep” genealogical origins i.e. thousands of years ago rather than more recent ancestry.  There are two test types – paternal and maternal. The paternal haplogroup test analyzes the DNA markers a father passes down to his son through the Y chromosome to identify ancestral clan.  The maternal haplogroug test analyzes the DNA markers a mother passes down to her children through mitochondrial DNA to identify ancestral clan. Autosomal DNA tests examine a person’s 23 pairs of chromosomes to analyze their ethnic makeup.

I started back in 2006 by testing with AfricanAncestry, which is a Haplogroup DNA test service specializing in tracing African ancestral origins.  I ended up testing with them twice actually.  The first time I gifted my father a paternal haplogroup DNA test.  The result came back “undetermined”.  Turns out it was because our paternal haplogroup was of European origin (R1b).  I later learned that up to 33% of African American men have European paternal haplogroups because of the history in America of white men producing offspring with enslaved women.

Next I took the AfricanAncestry maternal DNA test.  My results came back showing common ancestry with the Tuareg people of Niger.  I was euphoric.  I’d finally established a true African connection.  However I later learned that my maternal Haplogroup was U4, which was of European, Asian or Northern African origin.  In a flash, my clear African ancestral connection had blurred into one that could just as easily come from Europe or Asia.  It turns out that less than 5% of African Americans possess non-African maternal haplogroups, and I was possibly one of them.

Tuareg

My search continued when I tested a few years later with AncestryDNA which is an autosomal DNA test service.  If you are interested in understanding your more recent genetic history i.e. a few hundred years ago and connecting with DNA cousin matches I recommend testing with an autosomal service such as AncestryDNA, 23andMe or Family TreeDNA.

My AncestryDNA test results offered exciting detail on my ethnic admixture (62% African) and the regions from which my African ancestors might have lived – modern day Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Togo.  But the results didn’t offer predicted ethnic groups.  A neat new service called DNA Land, by the way, now offers the ability to upload your DNA for free and get back admixture results inclusive of African ethnic group estimations.

My search now continues through my family tree research. Of my 32 great-great great (3rd) grandparents, I estimate that 21 of them were enslaved, mainly in North Carolina, which for the most part means that my research of their ancestry dead ends in the early 1800s due to lack of documentation.  But through research I also discovered that I descend from a number of free people of color including my 3rd great grandfather Junius Matthias Cumbo, son of Britton Cumbo Jr. of Northampton, NC.  I discovered that there was more documentation available on these families offering me a slightly better chance to trace these lines much further back.

I’ll never forget the day I thought I’d traced all the way back to a named African ancestor. Numerous Ancestry public trees trace Britton Cumbo Jr.’s ancestry back to Emanuell Cambow born in Angola in 1614 and who was patented 50 acres in Jamestown in 1667.  When those Ancestry shaky leaves led me back to Emanuell with an Angola birthplace I was once again euphoric.  But I’d soon learn that the links from Britton back to Emanuell are not well documented, calling the accuracy of these Ancestry public trees into question.  So my current research is focused on extending my Cumbo family tree back another generation or two through validating documentation.  It’s painstaking research, like looking for a needle in a haystack.  I’m hoping that identifying Britton’s ancestry will take me one step closer toward building a validated lineage connected back to the Kunta Kinte of my family – a man named Emanuell Cambow.

This journey is not easy but with Roots as my inspiration I plan to stay the course.

Roots

Uncategorized

Family History Etched in my DNA

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 6 Comments

The Science section of the New York Times published a wonderful article this weekend titled Tales of African-American History Found in DNA.  The article details the findings of a study published in PLOS Genetics conducted by geneticist Dr. Simon Gravel who analyzed the DNA of 3,726 African Americans to assess genetic diversity.

Here’s what the study found:

Admixture profile: African-Americans today are on average 82.1 percent African, 16.7 percent European and 1.2 percent Native American.

When admixture was introduced: Native American admixture within African Americans presents in tiny segments which likely means the DNA was introduced in the early 1600s after the first enslaved persons arrived in the American Colonies.  European admixture presents in longer segments which offers proof that white men and enslaved women regularly produced offspring prior to the Civil War.

Detecting migration patterns in DNA: The Great Migration, which was the movement of millions of African-Americans out of the rural South and into Northern, Midwestern and Western cities between 1910 and 1970, can be traced through DNA connections among African Americans.

I also took away that the genetic diversity represented within African Americans re-enforces how much the concept of race is a social construct with no basis in genetics. However being able to know genetic profiles of African-Americans can be very important for purposes of medical discoveries. The only way to truly tease any value from genetic profile results for medical discoveries is to fully deconstruct the results down to the original African, European and Native American DNA chunks we inherit, and then analyze those chunks for potential genetic meaning.

Each of us inherits 23 pairs of chromosomes from our parents.  Here is a visual representation of my genome (called a chromosome painting) which came with the results I received after testing with the DNA service 23andMe.  The chromosome painting is color coded based on the origins of the ethnic chunks I inherited from my parents.  All of the magenta colored chunks represent my African ancestry; the blue chunks represent my European Ancestry; and the yellow/orange chunks represent my Native American and East Asian Ancestry.

AK Genome

Here’s how my results compare with the study:

Admixture profile: According to 23andMe I am 60.4% African, 37.6% European, 2.0% Native American, East Asian and unknown. My individual results represent a more diverse profile as compared to African Americans on average as identified in the study.   This diversity may be attributable to my multi-ethnic Cumbo ancestry as well as descending from ancestors who were the products of successive generations of offspring between white men and enslaved women prior to the Civil War.

When admixture was introduced: My genome includes long, uninterrupted African (magenta)  DNA chunks offering proof of my deep West African ancestral roots, mingled with long European (blue) DNA chunks which offers proof that I descend from the offspring of white men and enslaved women born decades prior to the Civil War.  It also includes one long orange/yellow chunk (on chromosome 1) which seems to indicate that I descend from at least one predominantly Native American ancestor, likely within the last few hundred years.

My genome also includes stretches of painting that alternate between magenta, blue and sometimes orange/yellow in very short chunks.  This is likely indicative of the DNA I inherited from my Cumbo ancestors and other free people of color ancestors who’d been multi-ethnic for many generations dating back to the first Africans and Europeans to arrive in 1600s Colonial Virginia.

Detecting migration patterns in DNA:  I can actually trace two distinct Cumbo migration patterns within my DNA.  The first is the Great Migration.  My 4th great grandfather was Britton Cumbo Jr. born around 1825 and died in Northampton NC around 1899.  He had at least 7 children.  Their descendants typically show up as 4th or 5th cousin matches to me within my DNA results.  Through research and outreach I’ve discovered that many Britton Cumbo family branches migrated to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and New Jersey in the early 1900s in search for work in the city an to escape the segregated south and rural farming life.

The second migration pattern I’m able to detect is more distant.  My results include DNA matches who are Lumbee Indian or Lumbee Indian descended.  They trace their Cumbo ancestry back to a man named Cannon Cumbo who settled into Robeson County, North Carolina in the late 1700s.  My more distant connection to them offers clues that our shared Cumbo ancestors likely lived in Virginia in the 1600s and early 1700s and that our respective Cumbo family lines then branched off and by the late 1700s had migrated to different parts of North Carolina – mine to Northampton County and theirs to Robeson County.

What have you uncovered about your Cumbo ancestry through analyzing your DNA results?  Please feel free to share your stories in the comments section of this blog.

Uncategorized

An Orphan’s Apprenticeship

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 4 Comments

The earliest document I have acknowledging the existence of my great-great-great-great  (4x great) grandfather Britton Cumbo Jr., comes from North Carolina court records.

The document, and the statement contained within it, is really about as good as it gets when it comes to genealogical finds.  It’s a near perfectly efficient little statement that reads almost as if it was written back then simply to help obsessed genealogical hobbyists like me validate a family connection hundreds of years later.  It checks off nearly all of the boxes.

Here it is, a Northmapton Court Record dated June 5, 1837 which reads:

Monday, June 5th, 1837 Ordered by the court that Britton Cumbo, a boy of color about twelve years of age, orphan of Britton Cumbo Sr be bound an apprenticeship to Jesse Morgan who entered into bond in the penalty of two hundred dollars conditioned with Henry Deberry and Kinchen Powell securities.

Britton Cumbo Court Record

Life expectancy in the US between 1800-1850 was quite short, around 37 years.  Mothers and fathers died young, leaving many more orphans as percentage of the total population than we have today.  Orphans in nineteenth century North Carolina, just as they are today, became the responsibility of the state.

An apprenticeship was a common option for courts to pursue for orphans. Most children who were apprenticed were orphans like Britton, or abandoned or illegitimate children, or were born to impoverished parents who needed the type of financial relief a working child could provide. Children could be white or free colored, male or female, and would be legally required to work for a craftsman in return for education, training in that craft, and food and lodging to up to a certain age, say 21.

Based on this document we can conclude that Britton Cumbo Jr was born around 1825.  The document validates the name of his father as Britton Cumbo Sr who likely died around or before 1837 an event which then triggered the court order for his son. Applying the average life expectancy to Britton Sr. it would mean he was born around 1800. The court document also refers to Britton Jr as an orphan which I interpret to mean that he was left parentless upon the death of his father and therefore that his mother died prior to his father.

Based on the document Britton Jr. was hired out to a man named Jesse Morgan of Northampton.  The $200 sum referenced in the court document was a bond Jesse Morgan had to post with the court for taking Britton in as his apprentice. The purpose of the bond is to protect Britton Jr by providing insurance that Jesse Morgan would live up to the apprenticeship agreement.

I’ve not found much on Jesse Morgan other than an 1840 census record for Northampton which lists him as white, head of a household of 4, owner of 1 slave (perhaps a census taker erroneously counting Britton, a boy of color in a white household, as a slave not knowing he was actually an apprentice) and employed in agriculture. So it’s likely that Britton Jr. trained as a farmer until he was an adult.

Jesse Morgan

By the 1850 census for Northampton County, we find Britton Jr (age 25 according to the court record) married with 4 children working as a farm laborer.  More to come in future posts on the life of my 4x greatgrandfather Britton Cumbo Jr.

Uncategorized

Who was Lou Pope Cumbo?

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 8 Comments

Louisa “Lou” Pope Cumbo was my great-great-great grandmother. She was born around 1832 in Northampton County, North Carolina to a free family of color.  Her father was Elias Pope, born around 1793, who was born to Jonas Pope a white man born around 1770 in southeastern Virginia, perhaps Southampton, and a woman of African descent.  Elias’s wife was a woman named Sarah (or Sallie) Clark Pope but it’s unclear, based on her age and how she is handled in estate files for Elias Pope, whether she was the biological mother of Louisa or any of her siblings.  Louisa had at least 11 siblings – Jonas, Olive, Lazarus, Sarah, Elias, Martha, Sidney, John, William, Hansel and Exum Pope.

I don’t have a photo of Louisa or any of her siblings.  All I have to approximate their appearance is this description written within the 1851 Freedman’s Papers of her oldest brother Jonas Elias Pope.  In it he was physically described as “of bright yellow complexion, five nine inches in shoes…”    His complexion and likely that of his siblings were indicative of their mixed African and European family ancestry.

According to the 1850 census Louisa lived with her father Elias, his wife Sarah and her siblings.  Her father Elias, by all appearances was a relatively prosperous man of color in Northampton.  He is listed as a farmer who owned 65 acres of land with a real estate value of $295.  It’s unclear from records exactly how Elias came to own all of this land, but estate records suggest that he might have inherited it from his white father Jonas.

By 1860 Louisa was 28 and living with her older brother Elias.  The census records lists her occupation as “spinster” an 1800s term no longer used in contemporary language, for an unmarried woman who is past the usual age for marrying and is considered unlikely to marry. It’s a bit hard to fathom that society would judge woman in her twenties as unlikely to marry, but those were the times I suppose.  She ended up proving the judgement of society wrong on 9 Jan 1866 when she married Matthias (also listed as Junius) Cumbo.  According to the 1850 census, the Popes and Cumbos had been neighbors in Kirby Township, Northampton County, North Carolina so that’s likely how Louisa and Matthias met.  One wonders how they came to know each other and choose to marry.  I often wonder if they’d come to the decision themselves or it had been arranged between the families given Louisa’s perceived advancing age and the need to “marry her off”. What makes the circumstances of their marriage even more interesting is that Matthias was around 13 years younger than Louisa. They had four children together.  Their oldest child was my great-great grandmother [Elizabeth] Florence Cumbo Biggs.

The most notable member of the Pope family I’ve discovered so far has been a man named Dr. Manassa(s) Thomas Pope, my first cousin four times removed.  He was born in 1858 to Jonas Elias Pope Sr. (1827-1899 of Northampton NC), oldest brother of Louisa Pope Cumbo,  and Permelia Hall Pope (b.1827 of Hertford NC) which would make him Louisa’s nephew.

Much of what I’ve learned about him I acquired through reading a dissertation written by Dr. Kenneth Zogry on Dr. Pope, his life, family, and legacy. Dr. Pope was a Shaw University graduate, military officer during the Spanish American War and successful surgeon.  In 1902, he was one of only seven black men registered to vote in Raleigh, NC. To prevent blacks from voting, southern states like North Carolina enacted literacy tests and grandfather clauses stipulating that to be eligible to vote, your father had to be eligible to vote. Dr. Pope was a doctor and was able to handle the literacy test. What made him even more unique within his community was that he possessed his father’s 1851 Freedman’s papers (the ones I described earlier in the blog) which he produced when asked to meet the grandfather clause. States also used intimidation to deter blacks from voting. Make no mistake; by requesting that he be added to the roll of eligible voters Dr. Pope was putting his livelihood and the well-being at risk. But he stood strong and courageous in his conviction to be treated as an equal to white men.

In 1919, Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope, became the only African-American man to run for mayor of a Southern capital – Raleigh, North Carolina — in the midst of the Jim Crow Era.  His home  in Raleigh has been converted into a museum called The Pope House.  It is the only African-American house museum in the state of North Carolina.  I’ve been lucky enough to recently connect with Pope cousins who are organizing a Pope family reunion scheduled this summer which will feature a tour of Pope House.  I hope to make it there.

Dr. Manassa(s) Thomas Pope, nephew of Louisa Pope

DrPope

Jonas Elias Pope II, nephew of Louisa Pope with his family, provided courtesy of The Pope House.  Left to right is Cora Weaver (his half sister), Mattie Reynolds Pope Weaver (his mother), Jonas Elias Pope, II, Joseph P. Weaver (his stepfather), and Joseph Willis Weaver (his halfbrother).

Jonas Elias Pope II

Uncategorized

Discussion: Cumbos as Lumbee

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 6 Comments

There’s been a substantive discussion on my Cumbos as Lumbee Indian blog post both in the blog’s comments section as well as in the various genealogy communities on Facebook where I posted it. I’d like to summarize my thoughts on the discussion in this post.

This discussion was sparked in particular by my observations on ethnic makeup of my Lumbee DNA matches.  In my post I observed that my Lumbee Indian descended DNA matches were anywhere between 5-20% African, 80-95% European and a few percent Native American and/or Asian and that these ranges may or may not be representative of the broader population of modern day Lumbee Indians.

Assuming the small sampling is representative of the broader population, the results beg the following question: How can one be Native American with relatively little to no Native American genetic makeup?

In short, racial identity and ethnic makeup are two different things.  One can be Black with European ancestry.  One can be White with African ancestry.  Lumbees can be Native American and genetically multi-ethnic.

Race is a social construct with no basis in science.  Society defines race.  Society most often defines your race based on your physical appearance, but not always.  Examples of racial categories are Black and White.  For many Americans, their culture and identity are tied to their race.

Ethnicity is your genetic makeup which has a stronger basis in science.  Your ethnicity is defined by your ancestors, where in the world they lived hundreds of years ago and the DNA they pass down to you.  Examples of ethnicity are African, European or Native American; Yoruba, Welsh or Cherokee.

TL Dixon, in his blog post, Native American DNA Is Just Not That Into You, outlines three primary reasons that explain why Lumbee might discover that they have little to no Native American DNA.  The reasons apply to other tri-racial isolate related tribes from North Carolina and Virginia as well.

  1. Their Native American DNA got phased out. Modern day Lumbee may have had full blooded Native ancestors generations ago, but intermarriage with non-ethnically native people created offspring who were much less ethnically Native with each successive generation. Racial purity laws in America essentially grouped citizens as white and non-white and created communities of color with blurred ethnic distinctions which further blended with successive generations of intermarriage. In parallel, a strong Native culture and identity could have been retained within families and passed down over generations creating an identity/ethnicity gap.
  2. Their Ancestors were not Native American by blood. Historically we see instances of mixed African/European populations choosing Native American or Portuguese identities to essentially escape the racial oppression of the colonial, slavery and jim crow eras in America. These new identities were passed down to each successive generation within families until eventually they were fully accepted and unquestioned.
  3. DNA tests have trouble detecting their form of Native American ancestry. Modern day Lumbee trace their roots back to tribes who inhabited Colonial America. Testing companies might be having trouble sampling DNA from these tribes because there are likely few to no full blooded individuals from those tribes left to even test. For those of us with colonial ancestors we likely see this in our results. For example material percentages of my 23andMe and DNA Land results come back unassigned or ambiguous.  This could also mean that percentages are mis-assigned to other ethnic groups.

As a final note, I will highlight an “elephant in the room” on this topic within some in the African American community.  It’s the idea that people with mixed ethnic backgrounds – inclusive of African ancestry – embrace fully Native American identities in order to deny or reject their black/African ancestry.  There may be some truth to this for some (that’s their problem), but the perspective is a broad generalization which doesn’t take into account the fact that many people simply embrace and take pride in the identity and culture passed down to them by their parents and grandparents.  Nor does it take into account the complexities of identity formation among colonial free people of color descendants in America, complexities which I am coming to better understand through my Cumbo family research. At the end of the day I’ve come to conclude that it doesn’t matter anyway.  Our society must learn to respect the identities people chose for themselves.

Lumbee Women

Uncategorized

Who was Bug Cumbo?

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 4 Comments

Who was Bug Cumbo?

He was my great-great-great grandfather.

I never knew anything about him until I started tracing my Cumbo ancestry.  My family’s knowledge of our Cumbo ancestry started and ended with Florence Cumbo Biggs, my great great grandmother, who turned out to be his daughter.

There is a lot I still do not know about him, for example the year he died or where he is buried.  But here is what do know about him based on research.  From all I can tell, he was a good man.

Beginnings. He was born around 1845 in Northampton County, North Carolina to a free family of color.  His parents were Britton (born between 1818 and 1825) and Mary Manley Cumbo (born around 1822) .  I know he had at least 3 brothers – one older brother James Henry, the others younger, Hezekiah Thomas “Tom” and William Britton “Shine” Cumbo – and at least 3 younger sisters  – Sarah Francis “Puss”, Virginia Ellen, and Mary Ann “Mollie” Cumbo.

What’s in a name?  He appeared to have gone by many names throughout his lifetime. Census records between 1850-1900 for Northampton list him as Matthias Cumbo, although the spelling (Matthias, Mate, Matthas, Mathias) varies slightly with each census record.  His marriage index lists him as Junius Cumbo.  I interpret this to mean that both were his names.  However I’ve not found any documentation that lists both names together, or a name and initial together, to hint at which was his first and which was his middle name.  He could have been Junius Matthias or Matthias Junius.  On the death certificate of his son Elias Kendrick Cumbo, he’s listed simply as Bug.  I take this to be his nickname.  Perhaps Junius became Junebug became simply Bug.

Marriage and Family. According to the 1850 census Bug Cumbo was a 5 year old boy living in his parents Britton and Mary Cumbo’s household.  Living one house away was another free family of color headed by Elias Pope, a Northampton landowner and the son of a white Northampton land owner named Jonas Pope and a woman of African descent.  In 1850 Elias Pope had 7 children.  His oldest daughter was listed as Louisa, age 18. Despite the significant age difference between the two, Bug and Louisa would marry 16 years later in 1866.  They had four children together.  Their oldest child was my great great grandmother [Elizabeth] Florence Cumbo Biggs.

Life & Death.  Northampton County has a rich agricultural history and so it’s no surpise that Bug likely spent his life farming.  He’s listed as a 25 year old farm laborer on the 1870 census for Northampton.  He lived a few houses away from his parents Britton and Mary who owned property so he likely started out working on their farm.  He could neither read nor write and according to subsequent census records he remained illiterate throughout his life.  By the 1900 census he was 55 living with his son Elias and was listed as a farmer.  His wife Louisa had died prior to 1900 because he is listed as widower.  This is the last census on which he appears, so he likely died before 1910.

Matthias Cumbo 1870 Census

Legacy.  The lasting legacy of my great-great-great grandfather lies first in his descendants, and then in a church I discovered in Rich Square, Northampton County that bears his name.  According to recorded church history, Bug Cumbo donated the land on which the Cumbo Chapel Bapist Church was originally built in 1895.  This offers proof that he was a land owner at some point in his life.  The first paragraph of the church history reads as follows:

In the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety five marks the first one hundred years of a long and rich history for Cumbo Chapel Baptist Church.  The LORD has truly blessed us!  The Church was founded around 1895 about one and a half miles from the present site.  The site was donated by Mr. Bugg Cumbo, for whom the church was named.

Here I am visiting the church during my ancestral pilgrimage to Northampton back in October of 2015.

Cumbo Chapel

I’ve been in contact with the Rev. Carroll R. Dickens, Senior Pastor for Cumbo Chapel Baptist Church.  He invited me to attend homecoming services in August.  I hope to make it there to  pay respects to my ancestor Bug Cumbo.

Uncategorized

A Mixed-Race, Mixed-Marriage

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 3 Comments

My great-great grandparents Edward Biggs and Florence Cumbo were both listed as Colored on their 1890 marriage license.

So why am I classifying their union as a mixed marriage?

It is because Edward Biggs was born to an enslaved family and Florence Cumbo was born to a free family of color.

Both were born mixed race people but due to different circumstances.  Based on a family photo, Edward Biggs appears white.  Based on research he was likely a quarter black, a product of successive generations of offspring between white men and enslaved women.  Edward Bigg’s father, based on his death certificate was a man named  Kader Biggs, one of the larger slave owners in Bertie County, North Carolina.  His mother Sarah Peele was a bi racial woman born into slavery around 1848 in Bertie.

Edward Biggs

Florence Cumbo was born to a free family of color from Northampton County, North Carolina. Her paternal Cumbo ancestors represented one of the core families who’d been multi-racial and free for many generations and traced its ancestry back to the first Africans to arrive in 17th century Colonial Virginia.  Her maternal Pope ancestry traced back to Elias Pope born free in 1793 to white Jonas Pope and a mother of African descent in Northampton, North Carolina.

Throughout the South after the Civil War, new communities of formerly enslaved persons formed building new lives together as free people.  Many of these communities grew side by side with established free communities of color, creating opportunities for intermarriage.  This was the case for my family.

According to their marriage certificate Edward Biggs and Florence Cumbo were married in January 15, 1890 in Northampton, North Carolina.  The circumstances of Edward’s birth to a slave owner are alluded to in his marriage license which lists his mother as Sarah Peele and his father as “unknown”.  Florence Cumbo’s parents are listed as Matthias and Louisa Cumbo.  The marriage certificate lists Edward Biggs as being of Northampton County, North Carolina, which means he was living there at the time.  Given where his parents had lived, he was likely born in Martin or Bertie County, North Carolina between 1867 and 1870.  I’ve found very little documentation on him prior to 1890 so it’s unclear how he found his way to Northampton County, but it was likely in search for work.

Biggs Cumbo Marriage Record

Between 1890 and 1900 Edward and Florence Biggs moved to Suffolk, Virginia, the largest city in the area, likely so Edward could search for work.  My grand uncle Otis told me he worked as a night watchman for a peanut factory.  According to the 1900 census for Suffolk, they had 4 children Lucy, Louisa, Clara and Edward.  Also living with them was Cicero Pope cousin to Florence through her mother. Shortly after the 1900 census was collected, they had another child Annie Biggs who was my great grandmother.

Their youngest daughter Annie would marry a man James Lee Richards who was born out of a similar mixed marriage.  His paternal Richards ancestors had been enslaved in Garysburg, Northampton County, North Carolina while his maternal [surname] White ancestors had lived as free blacks in Suffolk, Virginia since the late 1700s, likely freed by the Quakers close to 100 years before the civil war.

My grandfather James Edward “Doc” Richards was the son of Annie Biggs and James Lee Richards of Suffolk, Virginia.  He shared stories with us about growing up in segregated Suffolk and remembering white [looking] people coming to visit him as a child and being a bit confused about exactly who they were and exactly why they were visiting.  I can’t help but wonder whether they were really his Cumbo ancestors from Northampton or his Biggs & Peele ancestors from Bertie.

Feel free to share your family stories in the comments section of this blog.

 

 

Uncategorized

The Cumbos as Lumbee Indian

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 45 Comments

Bloggers note:  Lumbee is a modern day term.  This blog is about Cumbo ancestors whose descendants currently make up the modern Lumbee tribe.

Who are the Lumbees?

The Lumbee Tribe, with over 50,000 members, is the largest Native American tribe in North Carolina and the 9th largest Native American tribe in the United States.  Most Lumbees live in Robeson County North Carolina which is located on the state’s border to South Carolina. Tribal headquarters is in Pembroke.

 

Lumbee Logo_Final

Lumbees are fully Native American by identity and multi-ethnic by genetics.  My Lumbee Indian descended DNA matches are anywhere between 5-20% African, 80-95% European and a few percent Native American and/or Asian.  These ranges may or may not align with a broader sampling of Lumbee Indian DNA results if it were ever conducted.

There are several theories on the Native American origins of the Lumbee.  One is that they descend from Croatan Indians who intermarried with Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony.  Another is that they are Siouan.  A third is that they descend from Cherokees who fought in the Tuscarora War of 1711-13 and marched home through Robeson County.

Cumbo is a core Lumbee Indian surname along with Lowery, Berry, Locklear, Sampson, Oxendine, Hunt and others.  The origins of Cumbos as Lumbee date back to a man named Gideon Cumbo born in 1702 in VA.  The Cumbo ancestors I share with my Lumbee DNA matches likely date back to Virginia in the 1700s.  My Cumbo ancestors migrated from Virginia to Northampton County, North Carolina.  Theirs migrated from Virginia to Robeson.

Gideon Cumbo’s path from Virginia to North Carolina can be traced primarily through court records.  Between 1750-1756 dozens of lawsuits were filed against him in Brunswick VA for unpaid debts.  Next we observe in 1758 that he is sued for debt in Cumberland County, North Carolina which borders Robeson.

Gideon’s son Cannon Cumbo, born in 1735, is the first Cumbo to appear in Robeson County records. According to census records he was head of a Robeson County household in 1800 and according to court records he purchased two tracts of land in Robeson in 1802.  He had many children.  One was Stephen Cumbo who was born around 1758 and who married Sarah Broom.  Most of my Cumbo descended Lumbee DNA matches trace their ancestry back to Stephen Cumbo.

A grandson of Stephen Cumbo became a very prominent figure in American and Native American History.  Henry Berry Lowery was born to Lumbee Indian Allan Lowery and Mary Polly Cumbo, daughter of Stephen, in 1848 in Robeson.  Henry Berry Lowery is considered by many as a pioneer in the fight for civil rights and Native American tribal self-determination. Author Kelvin Ray Oxendine, a direct descendant of Henry Berry Lowery, has written two books on his ancestry – Direct Descendants of Henry Berry Lowery and Seven Generation: Ancestors of the Present Day Lumbee.

Photo of Henry Berry Lowery

Henry Berry Lowery

What are your family stories of Cumbo ancestors as Lumbee Indians?  Please share them with us in the comments section of this blog.

 

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Cumbos as Free People of Color

Posted on by andrekearnsdc@gmail.com / 9 Comments

If I were to ask you, “Who were free people of color in America?” how would you answer?

If you were to survey say 100 Americans with a reasonable grasp of US history, I’d guess that the majority would provide a least one of the following responses:

  • “Free Negros” who lived “Up North”.  By 1804, all Northern states had voted to abolish the institution of slavery within their borders
  • Mixed-race, French “Creoles” of Charleston, South Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana

Both responses are correct.  This is most of what we learn about pre-Civil War free people of color in high school history class.  What I’ve learned since then, through genealogical research on my own family, is that there was much broader representation of free people of color living in the American south prior to the end of the Civil War.  There were free communities of color established across many states throughout the south.  People within these communities were typically mixed race of African and possibly Native American ancestry.  Paul Heinegg’s book Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, documents these families of color who lived throughout the south and who trace their freedom back to 17th century Colonial America.  The Cumbos were one of those free families of color.

The Cumbos as free people of color in America are recognized in American history.  Cumbos fought in the Revolutionary War.  The names of Daniel Cumbo, John Cumbo, Michael Cumbo, Peter Cumbo and Richard Cumbo are memorialized on a commemorative headstone located in Jamestown, VA, dedicated to “Men of Color…Patriots who served in support of our nation’s war for independence.”  The story of Edith Cumbo, as a free woman of color born in 1735 to Richard Cumbo, the son of Emanuell Cambow, is featured in Colonial Williamsburg.  According to the blog of Dr. Warren Milteer of Virginia Tech’s History Department, many free men of color fought for the Union in the Civil War, serving in colored regiments.  Included in the list of names of colored soldiers from Hertford County, North Carolina was John Cumbo.

Cumbo Revolutionary War

Discovering my own ancestry from free people of color was quite an experience.  As an African American, I knew that I descended from enslaved persons and possibly slave owners. This meant that as I began researching my family, I rarely encountered records on my ancestors of African descent prior to 1870, because only free citizens were counted in census records.  So it was a thrill to discover an 1820 census record for my 5th great grandfather Britton Cumbo Sr. of Northampton County, North Carolina.  He was listed as the head of a “free colored” household.  A 1830 census record for his household was included in Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s 1925 study on behalf of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, of Free Black Heads of Family, Northampton County, North Carolina.

His son Britton Cumbo Jr., my 4th great grandfather, appears on the 1850 census for Northampton County, listed as “mulatto”, offering proof that he lived as a free colored man in North Carolina prior to the Civil War.  However, while he was free from the bonds of slavery, he was likely not free from segregation, discrimination and a reduced status as a citizen due to his color.  Other documents I have unearthed hint at the tenuous nature of his status as free in the south pre-Civil War.

Britton Jr.’s father died around 1837 when he was only a boy of 12.  North Carolina court records state that he was apprenticed to a man named Jesse Morgan.  When I reviewed the census record for Jesse Morgan’s household in 1840, it lists 3 white persons and 1 slave, possibly a reference to Britton who was an apprentice.   I also found a History of Potecasi Baptist Church, located in Northampton County, which references Britton.  In describing its historic church building it states:

The second church building…contained a gallery for slaves which was later removed.  It had two double door entrances and a steeple of moderate height.  The second of our three church buildings sits today to the rear of the present brick one.  Of the slaves, Britton Cumbo was the last of his race to be removed from membership.

The church history is inaccurate here.  Britton Cumbo was not enslaved, clear evidence being his inclusion in the 1850 census, his court apprentice record, his father’s status and inclusion in 1820 and 1830 census records.  But he was likely required to worship in the slave section because he was of color.  I’d like to think that even had he been given a choice, he still would have chosen to worship with his enslaved church members with whom he shared African ancestry.

What are your stories of discovering Cumbo ancestors who were “free people of color”?  Please share them with us in the comments section of this blog post.