As an armchair genealogist, I have always been interested in the origin of my last name. I discovered years ago that my great-great-grandfather, my grandpa’s grandpa, Henderson Gee, was a slave. What I didn’t know was that Henderson’s father, Reuben Gee, was a Welsh slaveowner and the rapist of Henderson’s mother, Venus.
Last year I met, John, Reuben’s great, great grandson, on ancestry.com. We discovered that Henderson was the half-brother of John’s great grandfather, Robert Lafayette (R.L.) Gee. That means that we are the descendants of brothers! John and I decided to meet up at John’s home in New Orleans to discuss our family’s—and America’s—racial history.
NPR decided to do a story on our family’s meeting. Here are the links to that interview that will air on 220 NPR stations this weekend. Check out NPR’s To The Best Of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK) media pages for the interview and Gee family slideshow.
Audio, text, and a slideshow for the interview are available at: https://www.ttbook.org/
WEBSITE with audio for Gee’s NPR interview: https://www.ttbook.
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/TTBOOK
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/
PODCAST: https://www.ttbook.org/podcast