California reparations: How do you prove ancestry to enslaved people?

Ms Abiodun's maternal grandmother, Johnetta Wilson, with her children at their California home.

This year, California's government approved a plan to pay reparations to residents of the state who can show that they are descendants of those formerly enslaved. Seeking the evidence will be a process, genealogists say.

Adrienne Abiodun knows she is a descendant of a once-enslaved man, named Phillip Branch.

She knows the name of his former enslaver, as well - John Whitaker. Ms Abiodun's fourth great-grandfather, Mr Branch, was born in North Carolina around 1795-1800 and then was brought to Mississippi.

Mr Branch's entire family was enslaved by the Whitaker family.

Ms Abiodun has several close family members in California who descend from formerly enslaved ancestors. Her grandparents fled the south to escape post-slavery segregation and were in California as early as 1947.

A professional genealogist at Legacy Tree Genealogists, she is closely watching announcements from the state.

That's because California is due to become the first state in the US to offer black Americans reparations, or restitution for slavery.

In 2020, the state formed a reparations task force to examine the case for offering payment for what has been called America's original sin of slavery.

In March this year, it approved a plan to give reparations to African Americans in California who can prove they are direct descendants of enslaved people.

On Wednesday, 1 June, the task force released a 500-page report detailing how it says the legacy of slavery has affected black Americans in the state, laying out the case for payments. According to the report, the Ku Klux Klan permeated many California police departments and residential segregation caused black Americans to live in more polluted areas than white Americans, among other issues detailed in the report.

It will then deliver a reparations proposal in July 2023 for the California government to consider turning it into law.

While Ms Abiodun is based in Florida, her family would be eligible for these reparations. But first, they - and any of the 2.5 million black Americans in California who plan to seek the payments - will have to show the evidence of their relationships to their forbearers.

Ms Abiodun says that while proving lineage is "not necessarily the easiest to come by, it's not impossible".

It can, however, be costly, time consuming and emotional.

Adrienne Abiodun's ancestors names listed on an 1857 probate record of John Whitaker's estate. John Whitaker was the former enslaver to her ancestors. Values are listed next to her ancestors names.

For anyone embarking on this mission, it is likely to be a "collaborative process" that will require the help of other family members, Ms Abiodun says.

She always recommends first "asking questions with their relatives, their family members, for those direct lines".

She suggests gathering all relatives' names on a family tree. Because this is for the purpose of receiving compensation, there will need to be documentation.

Once someone has their own birth certificate, they will need their parents birth certificates then grandparents and so on. Sometimes there won't be any birth records available so the next option would be to use family bible records, newspaper announcements, wills, estate records that can "prove parentage".

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Kenyatta Berry, professional genealogist and host of PBS programme Genealogy Roadshow, says the process to prove direct ancestry can be "arduous and quite emotional" as it can take years to find your enslaved ancestors.

There are going to be certain records to properly document things that governments would probably want, according to Ms Abiodun. She says that even if there are different origin stories among families, the documentary evidence usually "speaks for itself". Enslavers were proud, wealthy and had no reason to lie or hide the fact they enslaved people. Documenting this acted as insurance for their "investment".

Gathering proper materials can be costly. Ms Abiodun once paid $90 for a partial pension file. She says on top of that expense, someone could easily add $20 for vital records from repositories among other documentation costs.

"It adds up really fast. It can get pretty expensive," she warns.

While it takes time to trace back and prove direct descendants of enslaved people, Ms Abiodun says it can become "an addicting thing to do - to try to find your family and the names and to see where they've moved from and come from".

The alternative to a lineage-based approach would be to provide compensation to all black people in California. During the task force's hearing, some argued that excluding any black Californians would cause fissures within the black community. Lisa Holder, a civil rights attorney and task force member, argued against a lineage-based approach.

"Anyone who has some proximity to those harms and is a person with black skin needs to be included in the broader class, then we can decide, to then differentiate in terms of who gets more reparations, but we can't just exclude people who were harmed, right off the bat," she said.

Ms Abiodun's daughter holding part of the probate record of her ancestor Phillip Branch's deceased enslaver on a trip to Mississippi in 2017.

Various genealogists provided testimony on a lineage-based approach to reparations.

One of them, Dr Hollis Gentry, a genealogist specialist at the Smithsonian, suggested that public and private libraries be enlisted as resources.

Ms Abiodun agrees. The bulk of the work is, she says, "where to find records, what you're trying to find in those records and if those records are trusted records that you could use to prove lineage for whatever institution".

Ms Berry says to keep in mind some documents may have been lost in fire, natural disasters or because of other factors.

"I think it'll be very interesting to see how many people bite and are actually able to meet the guidelines for which they put in place," says Ms Abiodun.

As for her own family, she thinks they would "definitely be interested". Plus, she adds, "knowing that they have me to do all the work will probably make it even more enticing for them".