Welcome to the home of The Slaves Had A Name Project (SHAN). The initial phase for this project is to help researchers uncover the slavery history for their family members who originated out of the 5 counties that made up Bullock County, Alabama: Pike, Barbour, Macon, Montgomery and Henry Counties. In order to successfully locate your family members, you will have to expand your research to these counties. This project has done just that!

TRACING YOUR HERITAGE

In an effort to uncover my own heritage, it was important for me to understand just how complex this project would be. While viewing the documents it takes to track down your ancestors through the slave era, many names were misspelled, the name of the person you would expect to be on a record was not there, and in many cases some were just not documented correctly. This has been a labor of love, but a project I pray benefits many people who desire to learn all there is to know about their ancestors. Out of the 30 great grandparents I have researched, I have found many of the slaveholders information for them.

ABOUT ME

I was not born in Alabama. I was born in Rochester, New York in the mid-60’s so the only information I knew about Bullock/Macon county was through oral accounts from my grandmother, my oldest aunt and other family members who were born there. One day I decided to ask my grandmother how many brothers and sisters she had. She said to me, “well, they say (1) poppa had 26 kids. (2) He was a pastor and (3) he bought seven (7) marriage licenses, but he’d only married six (6) times!” I had only known of two (2), maybe three (3) so that intrigued me enough to ask her the names of her others siblings. This was back when the internet was in it’s infancy and the only information on Henry Anderson I could find was the name Hans Christian. There were no documents to help us track six (6) marriages and 26 kids so I had to make up my own system and start by asking a lot of questions. Here we are 25+ years later and I am very proud to say I have found all of my grandparents names, some of my great grandparents names and even some of my great, great, great, great grandparent’s names. I found all of her siblings, all of her father’s marriage licenses and I have found also discovered the slaveholder’s names to at least 4 of my ancestral lines. Many people trying to locate the slavery ties for their ancestors have not been as successful so my goal for this project is that it will help those researching like me will find the break through they need to discover their ancestral history.

MY SUCCESSES

Now after 35+ years of researching, in 2019 I finally published my grandmother parents line: Her Father: Anderson and her mother: Cope/McGrady findings into books titled We Are Family – Anderson, Whigham, Carter, Miles, Pickett, Cope, Youngblood, Alford, Townsend, Cox, Jackson, Calhoun, , Cooper, Stewart,
Washington, VanHoose, Fitzpatrick,  Glasco, Rayborn/Raybon, Thornton and Ellington.

and We Are Family, Cope(s), McGrady, Rhodes, Mason, Prather, Hall, Smith, Bird/Byrd, Drake, Calver, Baker, Jackson, Pugh, Gamble, Wright, Martin, Pickett, Cargyle, Thornton, Hunt, VanHoose, Harmon, Rogers, Anderson, Henry, Wright, Davis, Fitzpatrick, Warren, Feagin and Swanson.

Then I got 90% done with the second book but I realized I needed to do more research and that is why this project was started. I can’t finish my second book until I have found the parents of my g. great grandparents of my mother’s side the Lloyd/Loyd, Fitzpatricks so in September I will begin compiling the information for Macon County, Alabama so that I can complete the third book titled We Are Family – Stinson, Lloyd/Loyd, Fitzpatrick, Hooks, Hooten, and Wood(s). 

In 2019 I also published the following books in honor of my grandmother and the wisdom she shared with me over the years. The books were my way of passing on the knowledge.

Then during the COVID Pandemic that lasted 2019-2021, I turned the book We Are Family Anderson/Whighams into a documentary that has received awards from film festivals in 2022. All of the books and the documentary can be found on Amazon.com

MY TRAVELS TO BULLOCK COUNTY, ALABAMA