Ltas411

04/14/2026

https://www.lettheancestorspeak.com/post/look-who-is-on-the-cover-of-macon-magazine
Brenda Williams

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18HDmtsbEJ/

04/14/2026

Brenda Williams

04/11/2026

I found this article interesting. For those African American with Irish in their DNA... Maybe....you could be related to... It's just a thought

The character known to mythology as Queen Scotia, or in her own country, Queen Meritaten, is perhaps most famously linked to her half-brother Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who is probably the most famous ancient Egyptian, since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, by Howard Carter and his team. She is also lin...

04/07/2026

Congratulations Brenda Williams
https://www.facebook.com/share/1GKKTwNRev/

This month, we turn our pages to The Women’s Issue, coming to stands this week. This edition, we are proud to tell you that we are rewriting our stories. On the cover, Brenda Sutton Williams sits in the quiet hush of the archives, tracing the threads of Macon’s past so she can understand our current moment. Brenda is proof that history is something we return to and reinterpret, rather than a fixed truth. We are carrying our legacy forward for future generations to learn from. It feels fitting that a genealogist leads us in, reminding us that every story begins somewhere, often with a girl who first dared to imagine it.

MM contributor Edna Ruiz Adams, who covered high school girls playing softball for Macon RBI, took away this insight from the issue: “At the end of the day, we are all just girls. Even now, as women, we are all just girls. I think our dreams and mindset as young girls never really go away.” Through the Macon RBI program, girls are given a chance to play. That means they also have a chance to dream, to become.

Whether in boardrooms or ballfields, behind every woman is a girl who believed she could be more. Inside our pages, you’ll find women across generations and disciplines shaping what’s next. You’ll find seasoned leaders, like Macon’s tech CIOs or tax pros, alongside mentorship and educational programs, like the Macon Violence Prevention grants that power Girls Dig Deeper, Inc. and PACE Center for Girls.

This issue entices you, reader, to look both backward and forward at the women in your life. We hope to honor the paths paved before us and the ones still unfolding. For April/May, we celebrate the many ways women here in Macon are not just living their stories but rewriting them — again and again.

Cover story: Clarence W. Thomas, Jr
Cover image: Matt Odom

04/01/2026

https://www.lettheancestorspeak.com/post/berry-newsom-the-free-black-man-who-rode-with-nat-turner-in-the-summer-of-1831

Brenda Williams
Berry Newsom: The Free Black Man Who Rode with Nat Turner

After months of studying Hancock County, Georgia—where I tracked the dramatic drop in free people of color between the 1850 and 1860 censuses caused by heavy taxes, registration laws, and rising hostility—for a temporary rabbit hole change, I’ve switched my research to Southampton County, Virginia, and the world captured in the 1830 census. Southampton stands out immediately. According to the census, there were 1,745 free Black people living in the county. Legally free African Americans thus made up about 10.9% of the total population there—meaning nearly 4% of the entire free Black population in the state of Virginia lived right there in Southampton.

Go to www.lettheancestorspeak.com to learn more about Berry Newsome...

Online DNA matching consultation services by Lettheancestorspeak.com offer expert guidance for your genealogy journey.

03/27/2026

https://www.lettheancestorspeak.com/post/the-number-of-free-people-of-color-in-hancock-county-dropped-significantly-from-65-people-in-1850-to

Brenda Williams

the 65 → 13 plunge was engineered by a combination of state and local anti-free-Black policies in one of Georgia’s most plantation-heavy counties. It’s a classic example of how the 1850s “hardening” of the slave regime squeezed out even the small free-colored communities.

Let the ancestors speak...

Here is a clear, chronological list of the main state-level anti-free Black policies (often called “free Negro laws”) enacted in Georgia during the antebellum period (roughly 1800–1860). These laws were designed to tightly control, discourage, and shrink the free people of color (FPOC) populat...

03/22/2026

Elam Alexander, (The Millionaire $1,065,500 in 1860), has the ex*****on of his Will contested by heirs in 1913.

Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren listed below of Elam's sister; Mrs. Esther Morrison:

Miss Esther Bollick, Thomas Bollick, Julia Cooper, Gertrude Matheson, W. J. Matheson,
J. T. Bagwell, E.B. Bagwell, Temperance Poindexter, James Perry, W.M Perry, Bettie Perry Watts, J. A. Deal, S.T. Burke, M.B Morrison, Georgia Morrison, W.B. Stewart, Florence Stewart, Sophia Stevenson, Margaret Wallace, Mattie McLelland, Jessie McLelland, Eulalia McLelland

They demand to know the following from Alexander free school board:

1) What amounts and character of securities are now in the hands of corporation and trustees of the Alexander free school?
2) What amount of property or funds they hold in cash?
3) What amount of principal and what amount of interest has been invested by them in construction repairs and maintenance of the buildings known as Schools, No. 1,2, and 3?

The will gave:
1. 100 shares to his only daughter Mrs. Martha Ann Davenport.
2 100 shares to Samuel M Subers (Who is he? Is he a relative? in 1860 there is a Samuel M Subers, Merchant. To give more to him than his relatives is ....interesting...)
3. 15 shares to Elam Alexander Clarke (Who is he? There is a 6 yr old Elam A Clark in the 1860 census whose daddy Daniel Clark was also a merchant...interesting) He is getting more than Elam's brother or niece listed below. Wonder why?
4. 20 shares to Franklin Morrison, Mr. Alexander's nephew. That makes sense
5. 10 shares to his brother Oswin Alexander That makes sense I can see why his sister's heirs are sueing the estate since she doesn't appear to be in the will. I mean why not?
6. 10 shares to his niece Amanda N Moore That makes sense.
7. 10 shares to Kate Moore; daughter of Amanda Moore That makes sense

My Questions to this lawsuit and in general

Brenda Williams ' research on the Will, notes that enslaved people were directed to fund the "free" schools through their labor.

1. For how many years did enslaved individuals literally fund the trust with their unpaid labor?
2. After emancipation, were the former slaves paid for any continued work on the school properties, or did the trust still benefit without compensation?
3. Did any of them remain with the trust operations, or did they leave once freedom came?

I think the ancestors should be allowed to speak on this one.

The ancestors built this fortune. I believe they should be allowed to speak on how it was ultimately used — and who it truly benefited. What do you think?

Let the Ancestor Speak

Lana Reed



https://www.lettheancestorspeak.com/post/win-there-is-a-will-not-only-is-there-a-way-but-there-are-relatives

03/17/2026

Article by Brenda Williams
https://www.lettheancestorspeak.com/post/a-will-enslaved-lives-and-the-economics-of-slavery-in-macon

A recently examined probate record from Bibb County, Georgia, reveals a striking example of how enslaved people were treated as financial assets in the nineteenth century. The document, the Last Will and Testament of Elam Alexander, recorded in April 1863, provides a detailed look into the structure of slavery in Macon and the ways enslaved labor was deliberately organized to generate income for white families. Click link for more.
We welcome your likes and shares and comments! Thanks!

A recently examined probate record from Bibb County, Georgia, reveals a striking example of how enslaved people were treated as financial assets in the nineteenth century. The document, the Last Will and Testament of Elam Alexander, recorded in April 1863, provides a detailed look into the structure...