A Trip to Family, A Trip Through Time: Guest Blogger–Frances Dumas-Hines
Courtesy of my fellow 32 Days of Black History celebrant, Yvette:
A Trip to Family; A Trip Through Time
Deesha and I are honored to welcome yet another guest blogger to our 32 Days of Black History project. Originally from Chicago, Frances Dumas-Hines received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. She received her doctorate from Purdue University (where for a time the two of us formed either half of the African American enrollment in our department!) After Purdue Frances held positions at Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo before taking that giant leap for academia-kind to the non-academic sector. (I’ll have to have Frances back on the blog to discuss this for those of us still in academia…) Currently she is Senior Modeler for marketing analytics at American General Financial Services. She lives in Evansville, Indiana with her hubby of 19 years and two brilliant and talented daughters.Today she is offering her reflections on a recent experience that melded Black history and personal/family history–something that has been a recurring theme here during our 32Days celebration. If you saw the most recent installment of African American Lives, you caught a glimpse of her on screen. If you missed it, you can check out a timeline of her family genealogy here.
I have often been envious or maybe just in awe of African Americans who are fortunate enough to trace their roots to Africa, particular if they can find the specific relative that made the trip across the ocean in that treacherous slave ship. I am not sure where this fascination originates. Perhaps I was just thoroughly impressed with Alex Haley’s television series, Roots, as I was thirteen years old at the time–quite an impressionable age. It was 1977 when this show aired, a time of “Say it loud I’m Black and I’m proud” and “Black is beautiful.” In any case, this envy, awe, or just shear curiosity was very recently satisfied when I was “introduced” to my great, great, great grandfather Tony Dumas, who was born about 1790………………..in Africa!
The Gift
Finding him is something for which I can not really take credit. I almost want to say he was given to me as a gift just this past September. The event where I was introduced to him was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. I received a call from my sister Ethel in Chicago at about 9:00 pm on Monday, September 10th. She said that at the last minute (on Friday Morning of September 14th!) our cousin, Tom Joyner, wants to fly us out to Dallas for the taping of the PBS special African-American Lives2 where we will be presented with a wealth of family history.
So in true sistah form, what did I do? Set up an appointment to get my hair “did”! Bought new outfits and jewelry for each of the three days I’d be out there (even though two of those day were primarily just days in flight–but, hey, how often does something like this happen, right?!) And of course, I made sure the nails were done, both fingers and toes– because, of course, even my toes could get some serious PBS airtime, one can never be too careful!
I was getting all dolled up for this event, without really even considering what this information meant to me.
So on Friday morning, with outfits in hand, I fly out to Dallas. Even though there are only 800 miles in between Evansville, IN and Dallas, TX, the last minute arrangements resulted in a three-plane trip to get there. As a consequence, I had plenty of travel time to get beyond my diva preparations and really think about the real reason for the trip.
I know a great deal about my mother’s genealogy, but very little about my father’s beyond my great grandfather. I had seen the first installment of African American Lives in February of 2007. My mind was filled with interesting anecdotes, harsh truths, and family stories that had been told to such notables as Oprah Winfrey, Mae Jemison, and Chris Tucker. Bad or good, I was finally going to get some information about my dad’s side of the family. The anticipation of receiving this news was bittersweet as my father, Thomas Dumas, had just passed away 7 months earlier. Though I was really excited about this trip, there were definitely some parts of it that were difficult to wrap my mind around.
Family Reunion
The gathering in Dallas was very much like a mini family reunion. It was a nice change of pace to see so much family without it being in the context of a funeral, which had been the case for the most recent of gatherings, including, again, the very recent funeral of my father. Typically in those situations, the enjoyment of being with family is always overshadowed by the fact that someone is permanently missing from that setting. For this occasion, however, there was just the pure enjoyment of seeing relatives on my father’s side of the family, some of which I had not seen in 30 years!
We joked about old times and introduced each other to new family members, as we were now all a generation further along since the last time we had seen each other. At some point the realization did hit me when seeing my dad’s three sisters, the last of the nine siblings, that they were just a shell of what they used to be. I can remember when they were in their heyday, laughing, joking, dancing, sassing. We are now that generation and I wonder if we create the same vivacious impression on our children that they did upon us. This gathering allows me to behold the circle of life in my family.
But enough of the sentimental narrative. The real reason for the trip was to occur in only a couple of hours after a good night’s sleep.
Ancestor Reunion
The morning of Saturday September 15th, Dr. Louis Gates Jr. (or “Skip” as I was given permission to call him as a fellow doctoral colleague) arrived with camera crew. After a relaxed breakfast, we were all assembled in the living room of Hercules Joyner, Tom’s father, who has since passed away after the taping of the show. Because Uncle Joyner (as we called him) had no siblings, family consisted primarily of the Dumas side. Gates introduced the session by first stating that he had conducted both a paper search and a DNA tracing of our ancestry. We were introduced to his main genealogist that was able to painstakingly piece together all of our records and documents to recreate our history. What took place after this introduction was a session that had a room full of family memorized for hours.
It was everything I had anticipated in the plane ride, everything one would think about when imagining what slavery was like for African Americans. Gates had stories of slaves and slave owners, of forbidden relationships, of African Americans being convicted of crimes they did not commit, of freed African Americans and what their lives were like during a time when most African Americans weren’t free. It was something befitting of an epic movie, or at least a television mini series.
And it was all from within my own family! How incredible!
The five hours we spent in taping, listening, discussing, and question-asking is too much information to recount for a blog. But let me give you some of the highlights of that day.
Found him!!! My link to Africa!!!
As I started this piece, I noted my delight in finding my ancestor Tony Dumas, who was born circa 1790 in Africa. My elation at finding this relative was quickly squelched as I discovered his plight in America. With an optimistic beginning, I learn that my great, great, great grandparents Tony and Clara Dumas had a very close relationship with their slaveowner, Obadiah Dumas. Their relationship was such that Obadiah agreed to free them upon his death and had this written in his will well before the time of his passing. There was a good deal discussion during the taping about whether we thought that Tony and Clara knew of their slave master’s decision. We hypothesized about the closeness of the relationship and decided that they must have known and greatly anticipated a point in life when they would be free. We were to eventually find out that Obadiah died in the same year that Alabama passed a law prohibiting the freeing of slaves via a will.
Tony and Clara live out the rest of their lives as slaves.
It’s a Direct Hit!
I also acquire a connection to the motherland during this trip. “Skip” produced the results of the DNA search and finds what they call a “direct hit” for the Dumas finally. A large clump of triangles shown to us on a map of Africa is located on the upper western coastal area of the continent. The country is called Guinea-Bissauand the genetic match is to a people called the Balanta.
Grandma Hiawatha
The discussion during the taping of the show was not without its humorous moments. One in particular focused on the topic of Native American Ancestry of African Americans. If you had a chance to view the PBS special, you probably noticed that Dr. Gates spent quite a bit of time discussing the phenomenon of African Americans claiming Native American Ancestry noting, however, that this lineal connection is very rare. In fact, Dr. Gates states that only 5% of African Americans have Native American Ancestry. Tom’s brother Albert questioned this assertion by
stating that he was sure that we had a relative of Native American ancestry as there was a picture at their childhood home of a woman dressed in traditional Native American clothing. My sister Diana quickly interjected, “That lady was our grandmother. She was in a performance where she played Hiawatha!” (Despite the hilarity in that moment, those comments never made it to the show.)
The trip ended with Tom giving us a personal tour of Dallas including his home, radio station and newly purchased jet. I must say, I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. I am particularly proud of the way he has given back to the African-American community, which turns out to be a behavior that can be traced to our great grandfather, Isaac Dumas, who gave several acres of land to start a school that allowed African Americans in that part of Alabama to be able to attain an education.
I guess it’s true what they say: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
And then as quick as the initial invitation to this event had come, it was all over and time for all of the family to be flown back to their respective homes. It was the end of our trip to Dallas, and our trip through time. And, sadly enough, it may be many years before we all get together in such a wonderful family gathering such as this again. But the excitement of this trip and the revelation of such a rich and varied family history will always remain a strong wonderful memory for me.
| Thank you for visiting our 32Days blogathon project, with Deesha at Mamalicious! and me here at SITBB. We are joined by Tami; Inkognegro; Christina; and Chris. |
