Roots Recovered: Reclaiming Our Names 

I know the (slave) name of one of my African Ancestors. He was Igbo. He was over 6’5, and his daughter, my great great grandmother Henretta was 6’3! She married a man who was about 5’10 because she said “Otherwise there’ll be no end to my children!”. She was born a slave, but died free at 99 years old in 1962. Let that sink in! My mom remembers her well because she lived with my grandparents for a long time when she was a child. My mom’s going to be 68 this year. The legacy of slavery is much closer than we acknowledge. She was 6 when her great grandmother passed. She’s now a grandmother and will be a great grandmother herself soon. She’s only 67! I’m 44. I remember my maternal great great grandmother. She was 104 when she passed. I was 17!!! She began having her children at 13. My great grandmother had my grandmother at 17. My grandmother had my mom at 20, and she’s her 3rd child. My mom had me at 23. I’m 44. And I became a mom at 26. My older sister was a teen mom, making my mom a grandma at 41. We’re a year apart. She will be a grandma in a few months by her son. And an African enslaved man named Sip Brown is upon whose shoulders we all stand!❤❤❤ Thank you, Papa Brown, for being the absolute force of nature that was strong and withstood every obstacle that was placed before you so that we can all be here living your dreams of freedom and prosperity in the foreign land that you knew nothing of. You were a mere teenager yourself when you were stolen from your home, but you were withstood it all, and managed to find true love on the plantation with MeMaw Helena and had 17 living children with her who all were able to live free or be born free. You were able to save because you were a blacksmith and you bought the land that’s still in our family so you could have a safe haven for your children and grandchildren. Your dreams were adopted by your children and my Grandma Henretta was able to educate all of her children through college. Most obtained at least a Master’s degree, but 3 were Ph.Ds! They kept buying the surrounding land and we had the poor yt people coming to pick cotton for our family!!! I’m so humbled by the story of you, Papa Brown. And I’m thankful for that legacy of love, strength and faith that’s been passed to each generation from you to me. You are proud of each and every one of us I know. I have been told by my elders who have heard their grandmother Henretta’s stories of her father that I have his same strength and stubbornness lol. I am proud to be like you! We have the same birthday so I have always felt connected to you, Papa. I don’t know if you picked the date or if it was the actual day of your birth but since I was a child I have always lit a candle on my cake just for you! I used to require that they sang happy birthday to you, too! 😂😂😂😂 But I know that you live on through us all!❤❤❤❤❤ I’m sorry to anyone reading this long comment. But I had to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to the only ancestor that I know from Africa. I feel like I had to honor him with my words and tell him of all the things that were made possible once his foot landed on the shores in Savannah, Ga. This seemed like the perfect time and place for that. ❤❤❤

I SALUTE every Black African American. You all are patient and brave at what you do. You never gave up in tracing our Ancestry. Thank you. In England we couldn't find or being allowed to find any information on our History. They were hidden from us, and still is. Stay Strong, Unity is Strength. I am back in my Country or Place of Birth.

Great documentary and thanks for featuring us!

Research done by indigenous people looking for their roots should be free as a form one form of reparations

I have a female ancestor who was on my maternal side. She was found to have been born in Africa on a death certificate. So far, we do not know her actual name, but I gave her a name from India that translates to "Survivor." The name is Tisha.

Wonderful beautifully done.

New Orleans, Louisiana here, checking in. Praise to the ancestors. Ase’ 🤲🏾⚜️🖤

This documentary is so great! Thank you for sharing so much information and family stories. Janet and Harold Roach's story is beautifully amazing.

The 1870s is not the first time we were mentioned by names on the census. There were free people of color and they were definitely on the census as such in 1850 & 1860

The REAL GREATNESS! I FOUND MY AFRICAN RELATIVES IN WARRI STATE OF OYO. WE HAVE COMMUNICATED! PEACE AND BLESSINGS TO YOU AND YOURS ❤

I birthed three ancestors and I will not fail them. ❤️❤️

The drums reminded me of a bazaar and show my grandmother took us to called Dance Afrika in Brooklyn …..Beautiful ❤️

Try Church records also ( baptism records) . My elderly cousin lived to be 107 yrs . This was in the 80s , she stated that she was born into slavery and that when a child was born on the plantations , the slave owner's wife would take a piece of rag or brown paper and put the name and date of the child's birth. So on that note, maybe they still have an inventory list 😢. I say it that way because that's how they thought of us. And it is well known, about how america loves to save their trophies. Good luck all the way from Louisiana

Thank you for making this video. Knowing your ancestry is so important in helping you feel whole. I don’t know much about my father’s family because I wasn’t raised with him and that is a source of pain for me. Very inspiring video. ❤

That’s why Black Americans are coming together and fighting for Our Reparations. Reparations or no vote!!!!

EXCELLENT from the being to the end…. Thank you for sharing. This is so beautiful …we all need to know this information…fff

I had a black preacher tell me I blasphemed because I said Jesus was black. And that was before I awakened to the truth of who we are but I never believed Christ was a white European man knowing what part of the world he was born in.

❤ Awesome story from all that was involved in making the video.

It beings such a wonderful feeling knowing that U can pen point the region and names connected to you to make you who you are!!!!

Thank You for creating & sharing this 🕊

Thank you for doing the research and sharing your knowledge.🙏🏻

It's time for REPARATIONS!

Never in the history of man, has there been a greater reaoson for reparations for the descendants of slaves.

"That African." JUST Wow.

I wear The most common slave name.. Smith.. it is a challenge within itself to provide this name when asked

Thank you for your beautiful video ❤

❤❤❤❤ Love this love you guys keep spreading the word keep sharing. I definitely enjoyed the documentary and I’m definitely going to check up into my family lineage as well really really really enjoyed it.

I am trying to search my family history on my grandmother's side. Their last names are Baker/Perkins of Louisa Virginia. My grandmother's grandmother was named Molly Baker on her father's side. her son was William Carter Perkins. Miracles happen everyday. I am praying for one and I am a miracle.

Beautiful thank you for sharing

Enjoyed this documentary

My grandmother was Cherokee Indian, she married a black man. We all have redish brown skin color with curly hair. We have never received a dime from the Native American coservation. The government never recognized our geneology and our children never received the benefit of our land.

Thank you!

Excellent body of work. It's time. We must pass on the legacy to this generation before they erase that too.

Love this 🖤✨️

I love this

My Grandmother was borned Eva "Roach" in Guilford County, NC. I will be looking into a possible connection to Harold Roach.

My 3 X Great Grandfather surname was Walston and it goes back to 1820’s Northampton, Va. However his father’s surname during the 1780’s in Rye, NY was Jay. He was Angolan and enslaved by the lawyer John Jay.

Comforted to discover this work is progressing.

more please, it is so beautiful......

Beautiful water glory be to the MOST HIGH" also ROMANS 11:25-34 (KJV)

This is so Sad...

We are the Israelites of the Bible. Our God is the God YHWH of the Holy Scriptures. Jeremiah 17:4 tells us that due to our disobedience, we will discontinue from our heritage. This is why at the 1:30 mark, we have zero knowledge of our ancestral history. We all have to repent from our sins, accept Jesus Christ in our hearts and return to God knowing that we're His Holy and Chosen people. May The Most High bless you on your journey. Shalom

I misunderstood what this documentary is about. I thought they were going to find out and reclaim African names not english names. What were our names before we had english names? Is it impossible to find out what our names were before we became slaves?

The more stories that I hear like this …. the more I believe these yt’s are truly heartless and evil devils. Demons in the flesh….. cold and calculating, selfish…. just wicked spirited ppl. I pray God has relieved all of our mistreated ppl in the afterlife 🙏🏾❤️

I will never live in the US again. I left 20 years ago. This year, I will find a home in Rwanda. Im now 62 years old.

❤❤❤

America is the True Old World and WE are the Ancestors of the world not just Africa. America 1st!!

Ase o Ancestors 🖤🙌🏾

I have to get in touch with them. Im searching for the name of the mother of my Great great grandfather! Its so hard when you don't have access to the records

With my father and that's in ahoskie North Carolina

Does anyone know the name of the ceremony done in the beginning?

We are American

I work with Africans a lot …. And that do do not like us …. Me and my people are not African

My ancestors names were Keita of Mali.

Some of us!

Pleasant Webster is my ancestor on my father’s side.

Beautiful but most of us are not from Africa. Most of us are the offspring of the first inhabitants of Turtle Island now referred to as USA. We’re the indigenous Niijis misclassified as now as the early 1960s as black Americans after the Power Power Movement. And in the early 1980s African Americans

I don’t consider myself African American two continents. I consider myself Hebrew Israelite

It's our names

I’m a descendent of the Pharaoh King Ramsay the third

Just curious to know, was any part of the African continent called by names of Uganda, Angola, or other such names in the C17? I believe places were named according to the tribes who inherited that particular region.

This is a good example that everyone not suppose to hate each other about collors and just help each other be human because God didn't created people on this earth to fight each other but to love this world that he created for us.God is love and he don't like what's happening now on this earth I hoping and praying that everyone will going to start to open their eyes to see what's really happening around us. Stop fighting for our childrens future. Just like my great grand mother told me,everyone of us will live this earth and no one can bring lands and everything it all going to left behind

ESTOS ENCUENTROS SON BUENOS 👍🏾 EN COLOMBIA HAY UN FESTIVAL EL PETRONIO ALVAREZ. ES UN EVENTO DONDE POR.VENDER LE LAMBEN AL BLANCO Y MESTIZOS 🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴

My dad's family are Cabbagestalk's and I was told my mom's grandfather's name was Brady Campbell he had funeral homes in muddy water Mississippi and he was lynched

These are Europeans names Not African names..im looking to change my name to an African Name

My dad told me that his peoples were from Ethiopia and he said he had a full blooded Black Foot Indian grandmother truth be told no doubt old school hard times Mississippi

Very Important To Know Who We Are !!!!!! Time 2.36

My mother was in pawley Island that's her I'm living in right now

She can give back the land her ancestors stole and pay reparations to the descendants of the people your ancestors enslaved plus the interest.

According to who?

11:00 you cant own property in this little village unless youre a descendent??? Wow.

If so much are found in the U S. Can you picture what England has hidden or what was destroyed. Our Foreparents Are Awake, and are here to remind and help us. Stay Strong my People.

It's a seance.

Michigan Church giving reparations

Be careful

Indentured means entrepreneurship…do you want to be a entrepreneur..

Always 400 years, no matter how much time passes. 🙄

I didn’t see one African in this video. We are indigenous to America

My mother never told me I had family in Africa. I don’t agree

We are Israelites, we don’t pray to Our Ancestors but to Yahawah/God only, in the Name of Yahawashi the Son of Yahawah/God of Israel.

Notice all the names she said we're biblical names

But I don’t understand is this you have family members who are elder and he still sharp just like my grandmother was and it looks like he was placed in a home with all that family. I could’ve never allowed my grandmother who raised me to be in a home, never no matter what Sacrifices is what we have to do for the ones who took care of us. She was 101 still sharp.

Leviticus 26-38:42 38You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. 39Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ sins they will waste away. 40“ ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors-their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies-then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

MILLONES DE ÁFRICANOS 💁🏽‍♂️👩🏽‍🏫👩🏿‍🦰🙅🏽‍♂️💁🏿‍♀️👩🏿‍💼🙋🏽‍♀️✍🏽👨🏿‍🦰👩🏽‍💼💁🏽‍♀️

We are in the Scripture of Deut. The Blessing and the Curses. Curae starting in Deut 28-16:68. To include Brothas leaving their wices and Childrwn and the Hair issues Our Sistas have endured for Centuries.

Too emotional to watch

My ancestors came from EVERYWHERE in this world... I'm from EVERYWHERE 💯 yes I know

"African Americans" are Atlanteans. Start there.

Nobody should have the name Roach. THAT needs to be changed.

However I know that there is some of us from Africa

REALMENTE NO ES EN CUENTRO DE ÁFRODESCENDIENTES. 🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴👩🏿‍💼🙋🏽‍♀️👨🏿‍🦰👩🏽‍💼💁🏽‍♀️👏🏽📄🙋🏽‍♀️✍🏽

This is psychotic

Everyone has different needs and interests in their culture.

enslved people not slaved - you cant be "a kidnapped "-

I’m not African nor my people are we are native aboriginal Americans

Esau is gonna suffer a double portion of what they did to his chosen as the Bible says.

❤😂q

Please go ahead with your reconnection with your roots. I dhare your burden.

We were not slaves

BUT IM NOT AFICAN IM MY ANCESTORS WERE ALREADY HERE afrikkans didnt arrive til mid 1800's 🤬🤬