Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

It has only been in recent years that multiple states and regions in the U.S. pivoted from celebrating the yearly anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492, to honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day in its place. Had I written this article just a few years ago, I would have used this day to share the lore about my 3rd great-grandmother Margaret Marshall’s Native American roots. However, that family tale has since been debunked , leaving me with zero genetic ties to the indigenous peoples of America. However, although my DNA lacks this association, my extended family tree boasts an interesting connection to the Piscataway Indians, the natives living on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland before and during the development of the English colonies in the early 1600s. The Piscataway were an Algonquian-speaking nation, thought to have close ties with the Powhatans (you know, the tribe known to us in the somewhat true, somewhat false, fairytale story o...

  JULY 08, 2021 The story of Robert Pearl (1685 – 1765) is one that can help demonstrate just a small fraction of the overall complexities of slavery and freedom in the American colonies. Week 27: Free The Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland, “A Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland,” Maryland State Archives ( https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/intromsa/pdf/slavery_pamphlet.pdf : accessed 8 Jul 2021). SLAVE My 7th great grandfather, Robert “Molatto Robin” Pearl, was born into slavery, because his mother was a Black slave in Maryland. In those times in the American colonies, slavery became a hereditary institution passed down from mother to offspring. Robert’s biological father, surprisingly, was not a slave. That man, my 8th great grandfather, was Richard Marsham, a tobacco planter and carpenter. Richard owned Robert’s mother, and therefore, owned Robert (his own son) as well. There were certainly some advantages to being the son of Richard -- despite also being his slave...

  FEBRUARY 13, 2021 This year, Black History Month takes on a whole new meaning for me -- a more personal meaning. The reason being, this past year has revealed who my black and mixed-race ancestors are in my family tree. This finding was quite extraordinary for a number of reasons! Hezekiah Marshall pedigree chart, screenshot, 13 Feb 2021; online database with images, Ancestry ( https://ancestry.com : accessed 13 Feb 2021). For one, the blatantly clear reason for those that know me, is the fact that I am white. No one would look upon me and instinctively know I have any black ancestry. This plays right into the famous phrase “Don’t ever judge a book by its cover.” Even I wouldn’t have guessed that I had African ancestry based upon my years of research as a genealogist, were it not for the relatively new technology of DNA testing! It also reinforces the fact that the human race as a whole is much more alike than we are different; after all, we all originated from Africa at some po...