Genealogy and Discovering Our Roots

 

Marriage Certificate of Great Aunt Gertrude (Williams) Dorsey to Great Uncle Leo Joseph Dorsey.
In this certificate, Leo's parents Joseph -Allan- Dorsey and Edith Harper are highlighted. 

     Over the last few years, I have noticed a growing trend on social media of Black folks debating our ancestral origins and identity. What I rarely see are discussions on genealogy. Studying our family history and tracing our lineages would end much speculation about our identity and where we come from. Through this process, we find names, ethnicities, ages, genders, geographic locations, professions, property, and other documents. The best way that I can describe my own genealogical journey is "mind-blowing"! Check this out. 

    Before and following the August 1st, 1834 Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire, it is estimated that between 30,000 and 100,000 enslaved people escaped to freedom onto the Canadian side and established communities. When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 by then-President Millard Fillmore, an exodus of free and enslaved black folks began to cross the Canadian and Mexican border. These patterns are clearly indicated in population census data and community activity on both sides of the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican borders during these time periods. During that time period, numerous family members on my father's side made that journey and helped establish or settle into Black communities within the Province of Ontario, Canada. From the records that I discovered, the majority of these ancestors were affiliated with AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Institutions that taught Black Liberation Theology. In addition to Little Africa, a Black community located in Fort Erie, Ontario, the other most notable community where my family members resided was Coloured Village in St. Catharines, Ontario.    

Salem Chapel BME Church

     Central to St. Catharines Coloured Village community was/is the Salem Chapel BME (British Methodist Episcopal) Church. This institution was built by formally enslaved people, freedom seekers, in 1855. One of Salem Chapel's most notable members was Harriet Tubman, who lived in St. Catharines from 1851 to about 1861 right across the street in a boarding house -which no longer stands. Initially established as an AME institution, the Salem Chapel and many other Canadian institutions became BME affiliated following the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Members refused to travel into the United States to attend annual AME Conferences for fear of being captured so they began to establish their own BME Conferences. Central to these institutions' Black Liberation Theology were civic protests, anti-slavery lectures, and the establishment of mutual aid committees to provide food, clothing, and shelter for newly arriving freedom seekers. There were other notable members of Salem Chapel during the time that Harriet Tubman worshipped there, and many were my relatives. 

St. Catharines Orioles; First Black Hockey Team in Ontario, Canada.
7 players were my relatives: Leverne "Larry", Amos and Gordon Dorsey,
Doug, Dick and Hope Nicholson, and Winifred Bell
 

     Allan Alexander Dorsey or Deacon Dorsey is my 2nd-great grandfather who was born c.1840 in Tubman Country, Dorchester County, Maryland. He escaped from enslavement c.1857, settled in St. Catharines, and joined the BME Church where he met and married Samantha “Amanda/Mandy” Hemsley in 1863. Amanda was born in St. Catharines c.1844 and they had six children: Maurice, Lydia, Mary, Joseph Allan, William, and Frederick. Deacon Dorsey was a well-respected member of the community and served in that position at the Salem Chapel from 1868 until his death in 1882. Joseph Allan is my great-grandfather, the father of my grandmother Inez Maude Frank (Dorsey), who is featured in the news article below.

Inez Maude Frank (Dorsey), Grandmother

Great Aunts, Sisters Gertrude Dorsey (L) and Olive Plummer (R)

    It is through my grandmother Inez Dorsey (Frank) that I am related to both my 3rd great-grandfathers Josiah Henson and the Rev. James Harper. My grandmother Inez is the daughter of Joseph Allan Dorsey (Deacon Dorsey's son) & Edith Harper. Edith is the daughter of Charles & Harriet (Collis) Harper. Charles is the son of Margaret and the Rev. James Harper; my 3rd great-grandparents. Another interesting fact that I learned is while my great-grandmother Edith was born in St. Catharines, her father Charles, his five siblings, and his parents Margaret and Rev. James Harper were all born in Columbia, South Carolina. It is from this location that they escaped slavery. So, who was the Rev. James Harper? He was Harriet Tubman's Pastor at Salem Chapel when she lived in St. Catharines, Ontario Canada. 

     When the First Annual AME Conference of Upper Canada was held in Toronto on July 21st, 1840, before their affiliation with the BME, Rev. James Harper was in attendance alongside my other more famous 3rd great-grandfather, Josiah Henson. Two years later in July 1842, the AME Churches of Upper Canada again gathered for a Conference but this time in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. At this Conference Rev. Harper was ordained an Elder and Josiah Henson was ordained a Deacon. Also present was Austin Stewart, Black Abolitionist who would eventually author the famous 1861 biography Twenty-two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman. Another person who was present was Rev. Jacob Dorsey from the Salem Chapel, another one of my relatives who was born enslaved in Maryland around 1790 and escaped to Canada. 

     Josiah Henson was born enslaved in Charles County, Maryland June 15th, 1789. At the age of 41, he, his wife Charlotte, and four small children -two of whom he carried in a knapsack on his back- escaped from Owensboro, Kentucky. Forty-one days later they crossed to freedom in Fort Erie, Ontario Canada on October 28th, 1830, and settled into a Black community there known as Little Africa. Josiah would go on to lead a Black Militia during the Rebellion of 1837, found the Dawn Settlement in present-day Dresden, Ontario, establish the British-American Institute, and work as both an Abolitionist/Pastor. In 1849, at the age of 60, Josiah Henson's book “The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself”, was published. As this book circulated among abolitionist reading rooms, Harriet Beecher Stowe, a young writer and abolitionist, learned about Josiah Henson. Upon one of his trips from Boston in 1849, he met Stowe at her home in Andover, Massachusetts. Two years later in 1851 Stowe wrote to Gamaliel Bailey, the editor and publisher of The National Era, and offered him a story for his antislavery paper that she had been working on. Published in The National Era on June 5th, 1851, Stowe's story Uncle Tom's Cabin ran in forty-one weekly installments for ten months. This series of articles used Henson's life story as source material, and centered him under the alias 'Tom' as the protagonist. These articles were published one year later in 1852 as the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and became the best-selling novel of the 19th Century. 

     Stowe received a lot of negative backlashes and criticized as making the story up because it was a novel. To set the record straight, Stowe published a second book titled The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin one year later in 1853. It is in this book that Stowe recounts the life of “the venerable” Josiah Henson and exclaims that his life served as the basis of her famous novel. This book was seen as the spark that ignited the Civil War, which began on April 12th, 1861. In fact, when Stowe visited President Lincoln on December 2nd, 1862, he is reported to have said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." In the midst of the Civil War, then President Abraham Lincoln began to draft a document which became The Emancipation Proclamation. Six months after meeting Stowe, on June 16th, 1862, President Lincoln checked out a copy of The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin from the Library of Congress and returned it forty-four days later on July 29th, 1862. This book was used as President Lincoln's primary source material to draft the Emancipation Proclamation, enacted six months later, on January 1st, 1863. 

My Father Philip B. Frank holding a picture of Josiah Henson,
his 2nd great-grandfather and my 3rd great-grandfather

     What I have shared is just scratches the surface of the genealogy research that I have done on my family. It is a rich legacy of self-emancipation, education, community building, and preserving our cultural identity. Along with dozens of Underground Railroad freedom seekers who escaped to Canada, I have found family members draft cards who fought in WWI and WWII, Indigenous family members living on the Six Nations territory in Canada, violinists, members of the first Black hockey team in Ontario, the first Black person on a Canadian stamp, family members who chaired committees for immigrant aid societies, public speakers, poets, and etc. 

     There is a saying that we should live our lives as if a million ancestors were watching. All of us had two parents, regardless if we know them or not. This means that we had to have four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen 2nd-great-grandparents, thirty-two 3rd great-grandparents, and etc. This is not even considering numerous aunts/great aunts, uncles/great uncles, and cousins. That is our ancestry and our ancestors are literally a part of our genetic code (secret language/writing); we embody them. We are also composite of their stories; their choices, accomplishments, failures, epiphanies, perseverance, pain, and joy. We are the evidence of what our ancestors did, what they didn't do, and what they hoped to do in their lifetime. Imagine knowing little to nothing about them and these stories. Consider the wealth of resources and reference books of wisdom that we don't have access to because we do not know them or their names. How well can we truly know ourselves without knowing much about where we came from, and the sacrifices that our ancestors made, that enabled us to be here? Consider the miracles that our family members performed or experienced over the generations, that we know nothing about. While each year gives us an opportunity to learn about and express our infinite potential, imagine not knowing how generations of family members have knowingly/unknowingly expressed their infinite potential in different areas of life. There is no advantage, asset, or value in not knowing who our people were, and are, to AND in us. If you're interested in learning about your family, Family Search is an excellent website to start, plus it's free. All you need is the desire to know, the diligence to search, and the love to share it with others, especially your family!

Peace,

Saladin

Builders Build; Journeys to The Motherland

Anusha on the white sand beaches of Zanzibar

 

    Last year I traveled to Africa for the first time following the successful opening of my Atlantis School Gifted Youngsters. For two years I worked on renovating the site, while simultaneously coordinating public art projects in my city through the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, serving as the director of community engagement at the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, working with the United Nations, doing documentary projects, and various other programs and initiatives. It was a lot, and I would joking tell people that I work twenty-five hours a day, eight days a week. However, none of it felt or feels like work because I love what I do. Over this time period I sacrificed a lot to complete the Atlantis School. There were times that I had an opportunity to travel outside of a professional capacity, yet I chose to purchase a pallet of drywall, new windows, or appliances. Upon the completion of the Atlantis School I planned to take a trip somewhere in January 2023. That "somewhere" was Tanzania, 7,760 miles away. 

Tanzania, January 2023

     Many people have asked me, "Why Tanzania?", and there are a few reasons why I chose this location for my first journey to Africa. Number one, this East African country, with over one hundred and twenty different tribes, does not have the same history of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people as West Africa. Yes, I will visit the Western African slave ports, castles, and etc. one day. I did not want my first trip "home" to be an experience of trauma tourism. Secondly, I wanted to be in an area where I could see the various landscapes of the African continent including its famous wildlife. My entire life I grew up seeing Maasai statues, spears, shields, and other African art and crafts that my father collected. To visit a land that my father never journeyed to, yet taught my siblings and I so much about, was a personal pilgrimage. Lastly, Tanzania's Visa and COVID-19 policies were not harsh restrictions. I did not need to get dozens of vaccinations, nor was their media using fearmongering propaganda to force people to do so. 

     If you have ever said or heard someone talk about their dream to return to the motherland, my experience was like what you might imagine. From the time that I set foot on the soil in Mt. Kilimanjaro, until the time that I left, it was one of the most liberating experiences in my entire life. I felt like a king returning to my country. Our people were kind, generous, considerate, and honored for me to be there. There were white 'tourists' there from around the world to go on safaris and visit Zanzibar, yet I was not treated as a tourist. It is the first time in my life as a Black man that I have ever felt a sense of security, safety, and comfort. I was home! It left such a deep impression on me that on my journey back to America all I could think about was how I could bring others with me next time. I literally began putting the plan together on the plane. Several months later I was right back in Tanzania, and Zanzibar this time, with several others from across the United States. A few weeks ago, 12 months later, I returned with twenty-one people, including my five-year-old queen Anusha. 

     Many people have asked, "What is the reason for these trips?" I simply want people to this experience this, especially our youth. Folks have asked what travel agent/agency did I go through to set this up and the answer is none, nor am I doing this as a travel agent. When I traveled the first time I started building relationships with our people there, and it was through this established local network that I began to make these journeys possible. On this most recent journey, it was a collaborative effort; my colleagues from my second trip, Kelly Diane Galloway (Buffalo, NY) and Roderick Adams (Oakland, CA), assisted with the planning, coordination, and its execution. This journey was also captured by videographer/documentarian Dorrell Edwards of Always Timeless Productions who will be producing a documentary about our experience. 

A heard of elephants in the Serengeti
Image: Always Timeless Productions

   From the first time that I went to East Africa, to the most recent journey, I still find it difficult to verbalize this lived experience. Staying on a fully sustainable eco farm which grew fifteen varieties of bananas, I was unable to eat bananas in America for five months. Drinking pure water from a natural mountain stream, not witnessing an argument or fight, eating all organic fruit and vegetables with seeds, sitting with my back to doors without feeling a sense of danger, and being declared an International Ambassador of a Primary School that I visited are just a few things that radicalized me. Sure, there are pockets in America where you can find some of these things, yet that is what I experienced as a standard of normalcy in an environment that sustained it. Everyone looked like me, from the darkest shade of black to the lightest of brown; in their cities and rural areas, in law enforcement, their government, and in every profession within society. In the images of their schoolbooks, on their advertisements, and across television. People were not materialistic and judging one another based upon what they had, or did not have. No one was debating each other's religious or political perspectives. There was not even a sense of violence. To put this into perspective, just last week Anusha asked, "Dad, were there police in Africa?" The fact that she didn't even realize they were there taking up space tells you how different it was to what we experience with law enforcement here in America. That was only one of many insights that my five-year-old, and the other youth who traveled with us, had through this experience. They now know for a fact that certain psychological, physical, social, economic, and environmental living conditions are possible!

Sakila Primary School
Image: Always Timeless Productions

     One of the biggest epiphanies that I had was witnessing how racism and white supremacy has embedded in many of us Black folks in America a deep seeded sense of insecurity and hypervisibility. Most of our people in Tanzania grew up never being scrutinized based upon their so-called race. In fact, many don't even know what "race" or "racism" is. On one occasion I was having a conversation with a few locals about some of the challenges and history of being Black in America and realized that I brought more baggage with me to Africa than I had realized. So, when some of our people come from Africa to America and have no concept of racism, or the historical plight of Black folks here, that is real. Some of our folks from Africa are so oblivious that they think that it does not exist; so they treat Black folks in America like they are incompetent and delusional. Some folks from Africa strive to better understand the concept of racism, or the historical plight of Black folks here in America. Some educated themselves before they came to America, others began to educate themselves once they began to realize that they were put into a Black (people) box. Keep in mind that in America's short 248-year history, this predominately white society legally restricted Black people from participating in it as citizens for 199 years or almost 77% of the time that America has existed. That restricted participation included all areas of people activity from economics, education, entertainment, government/politics, religion, health, sex, and law. This was all because of the color of our skin. Any cultural movement in America by and for Black people to reclaim our cultural identity, to proclaim or beauty and intelligence, to amplify our voice, accomplishments, appearance and to scream that Black lives matter are all responses to being dehumanized, othered and uncentered in a predominately white, historically racist, society. When you are the descendant of a people who have been generationally, intellectually, legally, socioeconomically, emotionally, academically, and physiologically defined as inferior (Black) or superior (white), you either believe it and act accordingly or you fight to not believe it. All of this psychological, social, economic, educational, institutional, legal, and environmental baggage is what we all inherited as Americans, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. All of this, and more, was baggage that I brought with me to Africa. Baggage that many of our brothers and sisters in Africa have never seen or heard of before.

Welcome Reception to Sakila Primary School

     As the International Ambassador of Sakila Primary School, I was able to secure water for the school for the next two-years and our second travel group brought supplies to the staff and students. On our most recent trip we brought more supplies and my colleague Roderick secured sixty computers that we were able to provide for their staff and create a computer lab. Lastly, we unveiled the launch of our Sakila Care Foundation; a non-governmental organization to expand this global initiative. 

     The experience of being in a cultural environment where "hakuna matata" (no worries or there are no troubles) is literally the status quo is both transformative and therapeutic, especially for our children. It is a lived experience that cannot be simulated at a three-day retreat, some professional development training, or hours long YouTube videos. As a Five Percenter, I think that too many of us use the word 'build' as a noun and see it as an object or a thing. That thing is usually just a bunch of talking, gossiping, social media posting, and Youtubing and it rarely goes beyond that. The word 'build' in our language [of Supreme Mathematics] is a verb or a word used to describe an action. So, to 'build' means to show forth and prove our power through some act, direct action, or activity. As a noun it is only potential, yet it is kinetic as a verb. These successful journeys to East Africa helped build an intercontinental bridge across the Atlantic Ocean to connect our people. A connection that enables our people to build beyond "the block" on both shores, especially our children. I am extremely proud to spark this initiative yet even more THANKFUL to those who have joined me to help make this experience possible for themselves and their families. We will be sharing details for our August 2025 trip on social media so stay in tune if you are interested in being a part of this amazing journey!

Peace,

Saladin