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19th century African American family surnames in Bucks County

Project Tags

Top Surnames

Bird, Bodine, Brown, Burleigh and 16 others
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Profiles

  • Rosetta Congo (1825 - 1875)
    • buried in the same cemetery as her father-in-lawCaution: The pedigree linking Rosetta to "her father-in-law" Samuel is only theoretical based on the Mount Olive cemetery burials as shown on findagrav...
  • Sarah Cummings (c.1826 - d.)
    Name: Sarah Cummings*Age in 1870: 44*Birth Year: abt 1826*Birthplace: Pennsylvania*Dwelling Number: 295*Home in 1870: Middletown, Bucks, Pennsylvania*Gender: Female*Post Office: Hulmeville*Occupation: ...
  • Israel W. Cummings (c.1862 - bef.1920)
    Name: Israel Cummings*Age in 1870: 8*Birth Year: abt 1862*Birthplace: Pennsylvania*Dwelling Number: 295*Home in 1870: Middletown, Bucks, Pennsylvania*Race: Black*Gender: Male*Post Office: Hulmeville
  • Preacher Richard Cummings (c.1827 - d.)
    Preacher at the Yardleyville A.M.E. church*Name: Richard Cummings*Age in 1870: 43*Birth Year: abt 1827*Birthplace: Pennsylvania*Dwelling Number: 295*Home in 1870: Middletown, Bucks, Pennsylvania*Race: ...
  • Charles Bodine (c.1820 - d.)
    Home in 1870: Middletown, Bucks, Pennsylvania*Race: Black*Gender: Male*Post Office: Hulmeville*Occupation: Farm Laborer
Mike Star August 2017

~• The focus of this project is even more narrow than its title. At the outset, I am focused primarily upon tracing black familial roots of free blacks going back though the 1700s to the 1600s. Several excellent researchers of the late 20th century have made headway on these topics. Some helpful GENi projects are tagged.

~• Pennsylvania's approach to the abolition of slavery was spotty to say the least. Witness the official disenfranchisement of blacks as late as 1838-1870

ALPHA LIST

  • BAIRD
  • BEARD > Garret Beard aged about 50 and manumitted Aug 20, 1810 in Northampton by James, John S., & Gilliam "Yompey" Cornell
  • BODINE Charles Bodine b.c. 1820 m. Mary
  • BRODGEN Samuel Brogden (of 1863 Falls)
  • BROWN contact_icons/icq.gif Elwood Brown
  • CARNEY Scipio Carney 1850 census Bristol
  • CONGO Sgt. (USA) George Congo , William Congo
  • CONOVER (BORN NJ, 1850 census Falls) Elias Conover (of 1863 Falls)
  • COOK
  • CRUZAN contact_icons/icq.gif (see KREWSON below)
  • CUMMINGS contact_icons/icq.gif(1870 census Lower Makefield); Andrew Cummings 1840 Middletown township
  • Esther (age 23 in May 1787) when she was manumitted by Smith Price in Plumstead
  • DARRAH Moses Darrah 1840 Middletown township
  • DERRY
  • DEZBOROUGH (ancestry has is as Sam'l but it may be Lewis) 1840 United States Federal Census, Middletown (1 man, 1 woman; both aged 55-100)
  • EASTBURN Charles Eastburn (of 1863 Falls)
  • FAUCET (1870 census Lower Makefield)
  • FOUNTAIN or JOUNTAIN 1840 United States Federal Census, Middletown (William)
  • FUSSEL (of 1863 Falls)
  • GANGES
  • GROGDEN Benjamin Grogden (of 1863 Falls)
  • GUESS Winfield Guess (of 1863 Falls)
  • GEORGE Samuel George 1840 Middletown township
  • GIBBS
  • HARRIS
    • Margaret Harris married <PERRY>
  • HIGHGATE > Lydia Highgate ws aged 27-28 when manumitted by Samuel Benezet in Bucks Co. on Sep. 9, 1801
  • HOAGLAND / HOGELAND / HOGLAND
    • we see a (free white) Henry Hoagland on p. 168 of the 1790 census of Bucks w/1 free black
    • many of the tax list (of 1863 Falls)
  • JENKINS ; example Charles Silbestre Jenkins
  • JEWELL (Jewells of NJ married into Perry)
  • JOHNSON
  • JUSTICE b.c. 1830
  • KELSEY
  • KREWSON / KREWSEN / CRUZAN contact_icons/icq.gif
  • LEDLUM (of 1863 Falls)
  • LIMEHOUSE (of 1863 Falls)
    • a Francisca Limehouse married a Jacob Perry
  • LONG (of 1863 Falls)
  • MATLOCK (of 1863 Falls)
  • MERRIJAC > Cuffee Merrijac aged 26 years 6 months; manumitted Aug 31, 1812 by Anne and Jane Bennezet in Bensalem township
  • MIDDLETON Charles Middleton 1840 Middletown township
  • MILLER
  • OMER Stacy Omer 1840 United States Federal Census, Middletown
  • PERRY (of 1863 Falls)
    • possible relation Susan W. Jenkins
    • Co K 32nd USC Inf. William Perry (1828-1912) ancestry dot com
  • POTTER
  • PRICE Henry Price 1840 United States Federal Census, Middletown
  • RAISINER (of 1863 Falls)
  • RICE (1870 census)
  • RICKER (age 90! in 1850 census Falls, black w/perhaps a mulatto son or dau.)
  • SMITH (1850 census Falls) (1840 United States Federal Census, Middletown)
  • STIES (uncertain spelling) Isaac (1840 Middletown township)
  • ROGERS (1870 b. NC)
  • RUNYAN (MD)
  • SHARP : Jacob C. Sharp b.c. 1830 ; Thomas Sharp b.c. 1834
  • SMITH 1863 TAX LIST FALLS
  • SOUDAN (1870 census) Suydam root?
  • THOMSON 1863 TAX LIST FALLS
  • VINCENT
  • WHITE Cornelius White b.c. 1803 see 1870 Falls 1863 TAX LIST FALLS
  • YEOMANS

KEY CEMETERIES

  • Slate Hill (Yardley, Lower Makefield) aka Yardley Colored cemetery

All "Colored" Civil War Regiments from the region

~• I have seen 3 or 4 so far. These remain to be compiled here

  • 3rd US Colored Infantry eg. Frank Derry (1848-1891), buried at Mount Olive cemetery Langhorne, wife is Anna E.
  • 6th U.S.C. Infantry (Solomon Derrah née Derry), Frank's full or half brother
  • 11th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery (William Congo)
  • 22nd US Colored Infantry (Sgt. (USA) George Congo)
  • 32nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment (GANGES, PERRY)

Assumed DUTCH & other COLONIAL ROOT NAMES

Hoagland, Krewson, Satterthwaite, DESBOROUGH

ABOLITIONISTS OF BUCKS COUNTY

Surnames associated with the A.M.E. Church in Bucks County

are highlighted with this icon: contact_icons/icq.gif

YARDLEYVILLE A.M.E. Church Elders c. 1877:

  • Trustees. Henry Clay Brown, Theodore Rogers and Elwood Brown. < these two Browns were brothers
  • Local Preachers. George Hufford, William Ayres and Richard Cummings.
  • Leader. Moses Journal.
  • Stewards. David Crusen, George Hufford and Benjamin Wharler.

NOTES

  • FALLS (1850) : Of a total population of 1788 free individuals only 135 were not white see last page of census

SOURCES

OBSERVATIONS

  • Record of people of color are not as thorough as those for whites, even in the census data where we might expect it, the motive being to count as many people as possible.
  • so few people of color owned their residences going well into the 19th century.
  • "In 1838, (Robert Purvis, abolitionist) drafted the "Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens Threatened with Disfranchisement"',[10] which urged the repeal of a new state constitutional amendment disfranchising free African Americans. There were widespread tensions and fears among whites following Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831 in Virginia. Although Pennsylvania was a free state that had abolished slavery, state legislators persisted in passing this amendment to restrict free blacks' political rights. They did not regain suffrage until after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, following the Civil War." (wikipedia)

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