We’re thankful for the Ancestry.com Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day sale on DNA test kits as we are now stocked up in preparation for our Maryland Family Integrity effort.
The first set of kits have been shipped to likely descendants of Cynthia Snowden (enslaved) and Joseph Kelly (free). We leverage multiple testing platforms as well as the Gedmatch DNA clearinghouse to maximize possibilities and exposure to multiple pools of testers. Our goal is to repair the fractures created by the legacy of American slavery: changed/erased identities, the commoditization of humans, unknown parentage, etc.
By testing living descendants of those who inhabited these communities in antebellum Maryland, we begin to restore the integrity of black families, enslaved and free, who were impacted by the practices of chattel slavery. This opportunity extends to families now spread across the nation and beyond, as the experience of the Underground Railroad, while offering a vehicle to a fragile freedom, also drove incremental identity erasure, as was needed to protect oneself from slave catchers.
One such test kit has been shipped to the great grandson of Oliver Gilbert’s brother, Amos Gilbert (taken name) who was born as Reuben Kelly. We seek to confirm that Oliver and his brother, Amos were full siblings. The descendants had, until now, only known what Amos’ Underground Railroad identity had told them, which was that he hailed from the West Indies and had always been free, settling in Canada. Of course, this story had been created to conceal the fact that he was a self-liberator, better known in antebellum as a ‘fugitive slave’ from Maryland.
Stay tuned for the result! We’re reconnecting families and reclaiming identities, one ancestor at a time.
