Ayers, author of the Ayers Family Tree, wrote: "Now as the evening shadows gather around us, may there be only enough clouds to make a beautiful, emblazoned sunset." My aunt, Thomasina Ayers Pleasant, a strong-looking woman with a sharp smile and a striking head of reddish-black hair, earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from USC and passed away just 2 years ago. My great-great aunt, Jenny Elizabeth Ayers, had ankle scars from being chased by the bloodhounds used to catch runaway slaves. So, like many freed slaves, they continued to work on the plantation for another seven years.
Family now tree free#
Though technically free after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, his family had no money and nowhere to go. His son, James William Ayers, was born in 1850 and worked on a plantation for the first 20 years of his life. Isaac Ayers, my great-great-great-grandfather, was born into slavery around 1825. I read their stories and studied their photographs, searching for features in common with my own. As I get older, I can see pieces of my mother's family in myself.īut with this family tree, for the first time, I felt connected to my paternal ancestors. As a child, I discovered that my mother laughs with her whole body, just like her grandfather, and that, like her mother, she waves her hand as if to physically push away uncomfortable conversation.
I feel lucky to have known my mother's parents and grandfather. Nabil Ayers, shown with his maternal great-grandfather, writes, "As I get older, I can see pieces of my mother's family in myself." After seeing them, I felt less black than ever. These numbers didn't change who I had always been, but they suggested that my father's ancestry might be less straightforward than I thought. According to 23andMe, I'm 66.2 percent European, which includes 51 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, and 32.6 percent sub-Saharan African.
Family now tree full#
But I was hoping to learn something - anything - about the side of my family I had never known.Ī month later, I got an email full of pie charts and graphics neatly breaking down my identity. My mother is fairly certain of her background - Eastern European Jewish. So, like many people I know, I sent $99 and a tiny tube of my saliva to the genetic testing company 23andMe. I'm often asked the question, "What are you?" Or the less invasive, but still pointed, "Where are you from?" I've always described myself as "half black and half white." It's a phrase I still use for simplicity.īut last winter, on a clear chilly day, I got tired of having to guess everything. I grew up in very diverse and liberal surroundings where, if anyone asked, I was racially mixed, and that was fine. My father is black, but because he has never been part of my life, I've never held a strong black identity or felt I belonged to any single race. My mother, who is white, chose to have me and raise me on her own. Nabil Ayers' mother chose to have him and raise him on her own.
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