In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy

Craven County, North Carolina Record of Wills (Loose), 1760-1890 Will Book B: 287 - 288. Written 25 April 1807; proved December Term 1807 In the name of God, Amen. I THOMAS HYMAN of the County of Craven,  give my wife PATSEY , during her life, one third part all my lands including the buildings where we reside, and the negroes STEPNEY, DINAH, BIG TOM, MOLLY, SAM, FIELDER, CAMBRIDGE, CHARITY, RACHAEL , and blacksmith, GODFREY ; to  my son, SAMUEL , all my lands situate in Craven County upon Hancocks Creek, Northward of Bounder neck gut and the south prong of said gut; to  my daughter ANN , all that part of my lands situate in Craven County upon Hancocks Creek,  Southward of Bounder neck gut, and southward of the south prong of said gut;  to my son SAMUEL  the negroes,   NELLY, AFFRICA, BOB, BEN, BIG BILL, ABRAHAM, SUKEY, LITTLE BILL, DAVID , and my half of negro LARRY , owned by WILLIAM CONWAY and me; to  my daughter ANN , the negroes, TILL , LITTLE TOM, NOAH, TOBEY, JACOB, AMERICA, A

Welcome to the first Amanuensis Monday as we focus on the Descendants of Abraham and Rhoda (Whitehead) Hyman. Amanuensis? For those who may be joining us for the first time, you may wonder what is "Amanuensis Monday?"  "amanuensis: one employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript....Latin, from ( servus) a manu  slave with secretarial duties. First Known Use 1619." [1] Each Monday we will examine a document that guides us on our quest for the origins of the African American HYMAN family in Craven and Carteret Counties, North Carolina. For the purpose of maintaining the integrity of our research, we must approach each individual, each relationship, as  new  information. We must set aside any biases or prior beliefs about the family so that we can reconstruct the family group within the context of its society. The Will of Thomas Hyman In order to do so, we must first look to the will of Thomas Hyman [2], the white owner of those recorded in

It's difficult to believe that it's already been a year since I went on hiatus . . . not from researching, but just from blogging. I am now more focused, more organized, and digging deeper through analysis, thanks to Thomas MacEntee's Genealogy Do-Over . I chose to do the "Modified Participant Option," which is more like a "Go-Over," and am now in the midst of Cycle 3 .  Besides working on reorganization, I have also participated in several webinars for genealogy and writing memoirs. Yes! At times it feels like it's just too much for this genealogist, who also works at a full-time job, who's working on BCG Certification and writing a family history memoir, to sort and file the myriad documents collected over years of research only to find that I didn't catch it all the first time around, and am expanding from four surname binders to six ! How do I ever keep it all straight?   To be honest, if you saw my office, you would be asking