The Telling Records of Insured Slaves 1640 - 1865

Insured Slaves: Slave Era Insurance Policies,
1640-1865 

 

Yes Cami, there are plenty of records not referenced in this episode but slave era records are valuable resources for all of our ancestral research. Descendants of enslaved persons and enslavers may bring down a brickwall with these records.  

Slave Era Insurance Policies for Brickwalls
Let's talk about one of my favorite, Slave Era Insurance Policies, and be sure to surf this a3genealogy blog for others. These insurance policies are not widespread, but perusing these records is well worth the researcher's time.  Know that often these policies were not sold locally; so be you must to do a national search.

If you want to check to verify if your enslaved ancestor was insured, or perhaps if your ancestor insured enslaved persons, Here are two great resources:

1. California Department of Insurance: Slavery Era Insurance Registry 
   This registry highlights a nationwide listing from NY Life Insurance Company, American International Group, Inc, and the Missourian’s favorite: Aetna Life Insurance.. The states of TN, KY, NC, VA, SC, GA, and AL are represented in the snippet below but as mentioned other states, like MO are listed. 
   
   

Even indicies are chocked full of information, but you will want the originals:  

https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/150-other-prog/10-seir/slaveholder-names.cfm

 2.   Ancestry.com   

This ancestry.com site is a bit quirky, so you may have to also research just by using USA as the keyword and then search (ctrl F) from within the collection.  It does appear that these are the same lists as the California Department of Insurance: Slavery Era Insurance Registry, but just in case one gets updated, we have provided you with both links. 

The following is on this VA website, again, be sure to widen your search for both knowledge and possible record groups. 

Slave Insurance

SUMMARY

Slave insurance involved a contract between a policy holder and an insurance company in which the insurer promised to pay a sum of money upon the death of an enslaved person. In the three decades leading up to the American Civil War (1861–1865), such policies became widespread in southern states. In Virginia, the Baltimore Life Insurance Company of Maryland and later the Virginia Life Insurance Company sold insurance to slaveholders who were worried about the potential deaths of enslaved people performing particularly valuable work, such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and household duties, or dangerous work, such as in factories and mines or on railroads and steamboats.                                         https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries /slave-insurance/

Midwest -Missouri?
The following is a copy of Register of the Slave… Insured in This District (St. Louis). The policy below is a copy of the original Aetna Insurance Co. for Charles Meyer (above) covering slaves Henry and Martha. Ann below is was another slave of Charles Meyer.

Insuring Human Cargo

If you do this type of genealogical research, you already know tracing the ship Captain is vital to uncovering enslaved ancestors. It is also a valuable resource for the descendants of enslavers. It is here we can trace accounting books, determine heirs, and analyze net worth, assess transactions, etc..  It is also here that we can identify the origination of the voyage for human cargo, determine the age, and identify an earlier enslaver. 

https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/150-other-prog/10-seir/slavery-era-report.cfm

America's History is Our History!

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Small Town Vaults Holding Our Ancestors?

Rice County, Kansas: Lyons, Sterling, Geneseo, plus...

They Are Being Held Against Our Will
When your family is from small town America, we scour all repositories for ancestral data, relics, the family bible, anything! These repositories include the local museum, the County Historical Society, college/university special collections, etc. Really everywhere!

I will be chronically the a3Genealogy experience with Lyons, Rice County, Kansas repositories. This is actually one of the biggest conundrum for the a3Genealogy researchers and small town researchers across America. Our quest is for a lost Brown Family Bible. But we have discovered "closed vaults" as far south as Mississippi, across the Midwest and off western to Montana. So let's start with the facts. 

Sidney Brown of Ellsworth Kansas, married Aunt Leona Strader. We called her Aunt Can. Aunt Can had the family bible at 206 E. Lyon St, but she died in 1980 and my grandparents Ruth and Harold "Pappy" moved into her big house, across the street from the park: 

Yes, that gray thing was the "big house." You should have seen the tiny place on Pioneer St. 

Shortened story...sorry if this is deja vu of your small town America story, but Pappo "Grandpa or Pappy Strader" to his Lyons towns-folk" died in 1983, Grandma later moved to Kansas City, where she could be surrounded by family. There was an estate sale and somethings were inadvertently left behind like Aunt Can's Brown family Bible.

We put out an alert !!!⚠  In 2002, we were notified that there was a family bible seen at the antique store. 

Is this the Brown family bible you were looking for? 

Yes, Yes, please go back and buy it. We will pay all costs. 

But two days passed and the bible was no longer there after market day. That was 21 years ago. Lyons has an older population. Every several years I call around again looking for the Bible. I'm hoping by now it has been located in an attic or basement and donated to the 1) library 2) the Lyons local museum 3) or the local antique store.

1. Lyons Public Library

https://lyons.scklslibrary.info/materials/special-collections/

I had a tinge of hope:

"We don't have family bibles that I know of.  I'll ask the "person in charge."

2. Local Antique Store, Bits & Pieces
106 East Avenue South
Lyons, KS 67554
(785) 472-8876

Open Fridays 1:00pm 785-472-8876
Possible: that's actually an Ellsworth Tele
Left message: Waiting to hear from owner. 

3. Coronado Quivira Museum 
Mr Verl Manwarren.
105 West Lyon
Lyons, KS 67554
620-257-3941

Here's proof the ancestors are not hiding they have been kidnapped. 

"We have a vault filled with Bibles and other things. No there is no finding aid, they are catalogued by donor. No the pubic cannot go in the vault there are stacks of books in there. No we can't pull out bibles for review, there are too many of them, some in German, some...." No we have no way of determining who was donated in a particular year.

Really?
A rule of a3Genealogy and our 501c3 Tracing Ancestors: Be a part of the solution.  

Me: "Well can we assist by helping the Museum create Finding Aids?" There are probably family trees in the front of some of those bibles.

Mr. ManWarren: "We are under the jurisdiction of the Rice County Historical Society. Oh by the way, my sister thinks "she remember Oda Mae Strader of Sterling Kansas. 

Note: Leona (aka Ona and Can) did have a sister named Oda Mae Strader. Oda Mae (Aunt Odie) may have lived and gone to college in Sterling  (Cooper College) before marriage. but, there was one other Strader family in Kansas from that area. 

4.  Rice County Historical Society
Rice County Historical Society Executive Director: Charlene Akers
105 West Lyon
Lyons, KS 67554
620-257-3941

Mr. Manwarren forgot to inform me that the Rice County Historical Society was in the same edifice as the Coronado Quivira Museum.  So after hanging up, I called back.  The Executive Director of the Historical Society had already been briefed, which is great. Plus, this was my second call to her after she told me a couple days before to call the Museum. Again I offered our free services to assist with creating a finding aid.  

We have a system. Take an image of cover, open bible, take pic of any family history or identifiable info. Next bible, repeat.  Go back to office and use spreadsheet or database to create with image and info. 

Understanding the Personnel

I know this is odd, but in small town America, you need to know the archivist, the Exec Director of the Museum and personnel at the local library. If you have time, hang out at the American Legion, the local diner, and whenever possible go to the local games, and be able to talk about the weather! Just know, we need to know a bit about the archivists and directors in small town USA. 

We always hope for homegrown. They have an inherit interest in the history of their small town and many are not museum "hoppers." But, of course it's common for Museum Personnel to move from one museum to another. Plus, Lyons, Ks, and Rice County, has suffered from declining population, so going out of the community for personnel was undoubtedly needed. None were from Lyons itself

1) One person I spoke to was from Sterling, Rice County, KS, about 9 miles away but a rivalry, except for the 4th of July celebration. Ok...Sterling also had the best soft ice cream cones growing up. Oh, let me make sure I note, the rivalry was based on which town, Sterling (earlier known as Peace, KS), or Lyons, should have become the county seat in 1871! This was still a thing in 1971 when I was in middle school! He was a family historian though, he shared. 

2) The library staff person shared she was a 50 year transplant to Lyons. (After 50 years, she STILL wasn't from Lyons.)   

3) According to the Nationwide Journey Chasing History Lands Woman in Lyons, 2013, another person I had spoken to had settled in Geneseo, Rice County, KS, population less than 300. When I was young, we knew most the residents of Geneseo. Like many, her resume included various repositories and museums.

I did learn from a newspaper article, that there is quite a bit of storage room, which makes me sad. This is not a Smithsonian Museum, this Lyons, Kansas. Our ancestors are behind those doors!

Review of the Population
In 2000 it is said that Rice County, Kansas had a population of less than 9500 (9390).  Lyons Kansas, my paternal family homeplace since the 1890's,  had a population of 3732 people in 2000. Keep in mind that was from the 1546 households and 1032 families for that census year. Personally, I think that was inflated, we knew everyone. But, that is a smaller number than the attendees at my Kansas City, Kansas high school. 

Be sure to share your Small Town Research stories. We can all learn, or at least be soothed by, or become hopeful, by other stories. 

America's History is Our History!

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Cringing! Let's Talk America's Modern History

"Sears" 1908-1940

Synonymous with Affordable Housing

Sears Roebuck, Castleton Model, $934 to $2,193

Prefab Housing Is Not New

Listening to KC, FoxNews4 today, I had to cringe when I heard a short exchange about not knowing that there were Sears, Roebuck and Co. kit homes. Sure the reporters knew about the prefab tiny homes of today, but not about America's history; Sears Roebuck's influence, the company's influence on the housing marketing across America. Could this be true?

 

Do You Know the Sears, Roebuck Catalog?

Let's start with the Sears, Roebuck Catalog. Ok, I have to admit, I'm probably a generation away from the Fox4 reports of this AM, so perhaps they didn't grow up with the most important catalog of my generation. Click link above to also learn about headstones, and clothes and the opening of the Holiday Season. 

   

Ok...back to the houses! In1908, the Sears Roebuck catalog included 44 styles of ready-to-assemble homes ranging in price from $360 to $2,890. About 100,000 Sears Roebuck prefab homes were erected across America up to the 1940's. I have seen seen this number as low as 70K, but I will be using the preferred adjusted estimate of abt.100K homes. Many of these homes still exist in America's cities. 

In Kansas City, there were Sears Homes in Cass County, to include Belton and Raymore. You can see photos in the Missouri Valley Room of the Kansas City Public Library. 

Here is a 1923 Hillrose Model that sold for under $4000.00. Of course the Hillrose Model was able to boast to be one of the largest, but check out the Magnolia Model below. It was a beauty! Nebraska has about eight of them still standing.  These homes were made to last!

Magnolia Model

The Magnolia Model was just over $5K, and available between 1915-1920. About eight are still standing, one in Lincoln Nebraska.  Now you have a reason to go there!

Other Models and Where to Research?

There were also duplexes and smaller bungalows.  In my paternal grandmothers' homeplace of McPherson, Kansas this cute 1010 square foot bungalow exists. A recent search proved this Bellewood Model, with its Hobbit style front door, was on the market in 2018 in McPherson, KS.

McPherson, KS

 

Matter of fact here is a series of the homes offered from 1908-1914 located on the Sears Archives.  

Looking to learn more? Click here: Sears Archives

Pre-Civil War pre frabricated houses also existed. This was not a Sears Roebuck invention.  Here's a link: https://modularhomesource.com/us-modular-housing-industry-predates-the-civil-war/

Just remember, new inventions are most often built on our ancestors dreams (if they were dreamers). Affordable housing has always been part of the American dream.

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A Little German Genealogy For You

After 1763, Prussia became a European great power.
The rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership of Germany began

Do You Connect?
Rarely, do we post a full historical newspaper article. And, for shame!!! We haven't vet the piece, but the a3Genealogy research team has been working on a lot of German ancestry research lately, and this article has circulated between Europe and the States.  Ok...also Australia! 

Arkansas Democrat, Little Rock, Arkansas, Feb 6, 1892Page 6; newspapers.com

   

  

Lighten Your Load and Discuss! 

Happy German Research

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Were Your Ancestors Buried Along the Pearl River?

The Pearl River Swamps & Floating Coffins

In Season 1, Episode 2, Ship Manifests Have Answers (Jan  2023)  we concentrated on the swamps along the Pearl River. Known for a quick jaunt from Mississippi to Louisiana, enslaved routes to freedom, slave patrols, and Confederacy Cave Dwellers escaping the war, this flooded swamp area recently made the news due to floating coffins. Read Here:

"They" were warned of this back in May 2023: 

Vicksburg News Article, updated Sep 2023

Yet, it was still shocking to see coffins from this infamous area ready to float along with the bones of enslaved runaways, the remains of confederate soldiers, oh, and as it's one of Americas most dangerous stretches of water, there are many bodies from mishaps buried, or never recovered.

Do Caskets Float?
“Anything that’s airtight and can develop buoyancy has the potential of resurfacing," Trinkley said. When water fills a grave, whether below ground or in an above-ground vault, that casket “is going to float just like a battleship. And they will float as far and as high as the floodwaters take them, he said. They're sometimes found in tree tops when the water recedes."

Want to Know More About the Pearl River Area?

Clarion Ledger, 9 Jun 2021

• The Pearl River Basin Facts
• Pearl River County, Mississippi and the WPA Slave Narrative of Charlie Bell
• War Happens in Dark Places, Too, Confederate Cave Dwellers Hiding
• 4 Tips to Tracing Ships: Mail , Slave, or Immigrant Ships

Tracing Ancestors Along the Pearl

Hopefully your ancestor was not in a sealed casket. If so, hopefully the funeral home identified the body inside using the "memory tube." Read"  An Explanation as to Why Those Caskets Are Floating in the Louisiana Flood. 

Kathleen Brandt 
Be Historically Correct
a3genealogy.com
Accurate Accessible Answers
a3genealogy@gmail.com

Must Love: Rejected Native American Tribal Applications

The Basics

As with all ancestral research, the largest benefit is uncovering your ancestors.  The Federal government does not hold a comprehensive list of Cherokee Indian persons. So you must do the legwork to uncover your heritage. A paper trail of birth certificates, death and marriage certificates, and other documents may be found linking yourself to an enrolled ancestor. But for enrollment, each tribe has specific rules, and regulations that must be met. 

1. not all Tribes or Nations are Federally recognized.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs lists all 574 federally recognized American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives. 
2. Prove your relationship to the tribe. So you will want to have sketched your pedigree to determine your possible blood quantum. Again, required amounts are determined by the enrolling tribe. This is not a qualifier for all Tribes. 
3. Your ancestor could not have already been rejected.

Some Native American ancestors were accepted in a tribe, they may have even received benefits (i.e. land) but due to a breach later lost their enrollment in the tribe. 

Accepted and Enrolled 1880 and 1896; Rejected 1900 

Rejections may have occurred if your ancestor did the following

• gave up their Native American enrollment to become an USA citizen (i.e. citizen of Oklahoma)
• failed to remain in the territory when it may have been a requirement
• non-Natives, or failure to prove. Sometimes ancestors were already noted as "Doubtful"!
• unable to speak the Native language

Even settlers families may have lost their tribal rights.

Obit of Robert Lee Jordan, 1941

Know Tribal Requirements

Tribal benefits, rights, and finances, vary from tribe to tribe. Contrary to common belief, a Dawes Roll number is not a requirement for all Native American Tribes. Although many require at least 1/16th Native "blood" which could be gained from a great-great grandparent, the NY Native American Mohawks only recognize through a mother's enrollment. Then a 1/4 (25%) blood quantum must be proven. 

50% Parents

25% Grandparents

12.5% Great-Grandparents

6.25% Great-Great-Grandparents

3.125% Great-Great-Great-Grandparents

1.5625% Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparents

To Say You are Cherokee is Not Enough

1874 Georgia rolls: archives.gov

Even the following three Federally Recognized Cherokee tribes do not have the same requirements for enrollment:

• Yes, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahomans must prove to be a descendent from a person on the Dawes Commission Roll. No blood quantum requirement. Your family may be on a rejected roll, but your ancestors shared quite a bit of ancestral information on these applications.  

• United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee must prove to be descendent from a person on the Dawes Roll AND have minimum of 1/4 blood quantum.

• Eastern Band of Cherokees of North Carolina must prove to be descendant from a person on the Baker Roll AND have a minimum of 1/16 blood quantum. Be sure to listen in on the podcast above.  These records are not only on the common database sites like ancestry.com, but researchers will find additional information on the National Archives digitized site: archive.gov.

A Few Reminders

1. Verify that the tribe of interest, ancestral connection - is Federally recognized.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs website will assist with this research.
2. Can DNA Help Prove My Native American Ancestry? Although there are markers that may indicate Native American bloodline, DNA testing does not verify specific tribes. And even though DNA spawns great genealogical interests, it alone isn't a tool for proving ancestral relationships. Not all tribes use a blood quantum Requirement: 

SOURCES: Thornton (1987b); U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs 

Rejected Applications Are A Goldmine

There are benefits of reviewing all the relevant applications. It is here that researchers can uncover a full family since many used the same ancestor to make their claim. By cross refencing applicants you may be able to discover inconsistencies between applicants. These inconsistencies often hold additional hints about your ancestors.  

Never overlook the full information once you find a rejected applicant.  It is through the text that their hometown may be discovered, as well as names of additional generations and names of spouses.

Eastern Cherokee by Guion Miller, 1908-1910, Noah Jordan

Other Vocabulary and Contacts

• AIHEC = American Indian Higher Education Consortium: http://www.aihec.org/
• BIA = US Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Education, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20240-0001 You may also reach the bureau of Indian affairs at 1-800-332-9186)
• BIE = Bureau of Indian Education; http://www.bie.edu/ Bureau of Indian Education
• CIB = certificate of Indian blood is or proof of membership with federally recognized tribes

Kathleen Brandt 
Be Historically Correct

a3genealogy.com
Accurate Accessible Answers
a3genealogy@gmail.com