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I 1st found my grgrgrandma Adalade Teague bn abt 1820 in SC, in the 1870 census with her children. Their surname was totally different.
Lucy VANCE bn 1852 my grgrandma
Francis bn 1854
Harriet bn 1856
Elbert bn 1861
Rebecca/Beckie bn 1865
Jim bn 1868
All were living in Shaw SC, later named Johnston.
I couldn't understand why her children's surname was VANCE and not Teague. Of course I was thinking from the modern version. I set off to find out just who were these grgrandma's. On the census in 1870, it said Adalade was a nurse. That could have been a wet nurse. I looked for what TEAGUE she may have worked for or was related to. This took many years of connecting the dots and looking at any Teague paper work I could find. This was doubly hard because my people were slaves and there were no census records recognizing them with a name until 1870.
After going through inventories, slave schedules and any wills and probate for any TEAGUE, by process of elimnation, going by the age Adalade would have been in 1850, 30 yrs, I figured out the 30 year old female slave was my grgrgrandma Adalade. She had been owned by EF TEAGUE in 1850. EF Teague owned 8 slaves. 6 females 2 males valued at $2500.
To confirm that she was an african descendant, I took a DNA test with a well known company called, African Ancestry. I am a direct line descendant. My test came out 99.7% Temne/Mende. This means the people who share my blood line are from Africans living in West Africa Sierra Leone. For an Afro American this is thrilling to know, because our peoples identities were stripped from them when the were forced to travel to this country. We all seek to know where our family originated from.
This story is not finished. I want to know even more about Adalade Teague. Finding any paper work noting when or where she was purchased would be helpful in tracing out parents names and or siblings names. My family is connected the TEAGUES by this paper trail. Whatever information that is available in EF Teagues papers would be a blessing for Adalades grgrgrandbaby. ME!!
I hope by reading this true story, someone may have seen something in EF Teagues papers or perhaps a relatives paperwork about a slave named Addie/Adalade or any similar name and give me that information. We afro Americans have a need to know..who and where did I people live. What are our cousins names. And who among us may look like one of those African family members.

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