Showing 105 ads
  • Tags: found

    • Found refers to ads that announce a person has been found. These ads often describe the search and include details about the reunion or upcoming reunion. The ads identified by this tag often detail years’ long searches and testify to the persistent desire of formerly enslaved people to reconnect with family and loved ones.

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John Jones finds his mother, Parthenia Jones, after more than a 30-year separation

The Sun (New York, NY)

February 23, 1894

FOUND HIS SLAVE MOTHER.

John Jones's Search of Many Years Seems to Have Met With Success.

John Jones, the colored man whorecently
sought the aid of the New York police in find-
ing his mother, Parthenia Jones, from whom
he was separated during the early days of the
war, has been notified of the success of the
search.The story he told was…

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L. H. Horn announcing that the people Henry Smith inquires for are in Grimes County, TX

Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)

December 16, 1880

DEAR EDITOR -- The people inquired
for by Bro. Henry Smith are
found, as I know them very well.
Fannie and Julian are dead.
Charles is living in Grimes county,
Texas. Anderson is his P. O.
address. I am yours in Christ,

L. H. HORN

Cold Springs, Texas, Nov. 12th, 1880

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Mr. Goosland [Rev. Matthew Goosland], sold in 1847, finds his sister

New National Era (Washington, DC)

April 11, 1872

Story of a Slave Family.
The following is the story of a Mr. Goos-
land [Goosland], now a resident of Oberlin:
In 1847 he was sold from his wife and chil-
dren [children] in Wytheville, Virginia, and taken to
Mobile Alabama, where, after seven years
of great economy, he purchased his freedom
for the sum of $750. Soon after gaining his…

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Alcy Boon(e)

The Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)

First Ad: July 29, 1886

MR. EDITOR―I wish to know the
whereabouts of my mother whom I
have not seen since the Christmas
of 1884. She left West Columbia,
Texas, on the Brazos river and
went to Houston, Texas, to meet
her daughter, Emily Watson, and
never heard of since. Her name
is Manervia Watson. Her eldest
son is named John Carter, the
youngest…

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Naro Gillespie found his relatives (3rd of 3 ads)

Southwestern Christian Recorder (New Orleans, LA)

December 1, 1881

SIR ----- I feel very thankful for
your paper which was the cause of
my finding my relatives that I
thought were dead. I found them
in Sweet Home, Arkansas.
Yours respectfully,
NARO GILLESPIE
Egypt, Miss.

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Brothers George Drane, Phil Dougherty, and Charley Dougherty reunited after 60 years

The Washington Times (Washington, DC)

December 26, 1919

3 BROTHERS, PARTED BY
SLAVE BLOCK, REUNITED
Meet for the First Time in Louisville
in More than Half a
Century.
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Dec. 26.--The
slave block, once the center of com-
merce in New Orleans, has rotted,
and even its former site has been oblitera-
ted by the hand of progress. But
memories of Christmas, seventy years
ago…

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Levi Richardson reunited with his sister

Washington Times (Washington, DC)

June 19, 1904

AUCTION SLAVES REUNITED.
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa., June 18-
Having been torn from each other on
the auction block, Levi Richardson, who
is at the point of death at his home at
Mainsville. this county. saw his sister.
Mrs. Clara Watters, of Pittsburg, yes-
terday for the first time since they
were slaves in Virginia before the war.

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Rev. J. Preston Watson reunited with friend Thomas Gannon

Charlevoix County Herald (East Jordan, MI)

December 27, 1918

NEGRO FINDS MAN HE
SERVED IN WAR
Search of Nearly Fifty Years Ends
Successfully for Old Negro.
Pueblo, Col.––A revival of old mem-
ories [memories], harking back to the ante-bellum
days, when he as a boy was sold many
times on the auction block as a chat-
tel [chattel], and finally at the age of 17, learn-
ed [learned] of the war to…

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Rev. S. Tatem's brother is found

Richmond Planet (Richmond, VA)

January 24, 1914

The Planet Found Him.

Norfolk, Va., January 18, 1914.

Mr. Editor: I saw an advertise-
ment in your paper of Rev. Tatem,
trying to locate his brother. He is
here in Norfolk. His name is Patrick
Tatem and he lives in Allentown, No.
225, Norfolk, Va.

Your bother in Christ,
L. HAWKINS,
1048 Charlotte St.

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Mrs. Jas. Coakley found her uncle (2nd of 2 ads)

The Richmond Planet (Richmond, VA)

November 13, 1909

FOUND HER UNCLE

The Planet as an Advertising
Medium.

The publication of an enquiry
notice in the columns of the
PLANET recently brought the fol-
lowing results:
214[?] 14th Street.
New Albany, Ind., Dec. 21, 1909.
DEAR EDITOR.—
I write to inform you that I have
found my uncle whom I have been
looking for. I can not express…

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Unnamed man finds his sister, Louisa Smith, through ad

The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, IN)

March 9, 1887

ROMANCES OF SLAVERY TIMES.
There are more romances of the cruel days of
slavery among the colored people, even a quar-
ter [quarter] of a century after the emancipation procla-
mation [proclamation], than white-skinned people are generally
aware. It is quite customary for inquiries to be
read from the pulpits of colored churches asking…

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Henry Anderson found his friends and family

The Freeman (Indianapolis, IN)

April 23, 1896

Found His Relatives.
Mineola, Tex., Special.
Henry Anderson now living in Tex-
as an ex-slave of Somerset, Md., found
his long lost friends and relatives
through advertising in The Freeman.

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Susan Anderson found her brother and relatives

The Freeman (Indianapolis, IN)

September 29, 1894

The PLANET Found Them.
Editor of PLANET :
Please give me space to say a
few words concerning the "ad" for
lost friends. Mrs. Susan Anderson
received a letter the first [undecipherable] Mr.
Charles Braxton of [undecipherable]
that he knew the [undecipherable] in
Virginia. He knew the following
names in the "ad" and he is in Lake…

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George W. Moveety finds his family

The Chicago Weekly Tribune (Chicago, IL)

November 17, 1886

After Thirty-three Years. LAFAYETTE, Ind., Nov 15--An incident transpired here today singularly illustrative of the infamies of the late system of negro slavery in the United States, and of the unholy rebellion that led to its overthrow. George W. Moveety, a respected colored man of our city, was born a slave in Southampton County, Virginia, and…

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Mrs. Louisa Fry reunited with her mother, "Aunty" Strong, for first time since the Civil War

Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)

March 22, 1908

FOUND HER AGED MOTHER
Reunion After Separation During
Slavery Days
Special to The Inquirer.
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., March 21.—
Mrs. Louisa Fry, an aged colored woman
of Pleasantville, has just found her moth-
er [mother], whom she has not seen since the slaves
on a plantation near Charlottesburg, Va.,
were liberated at the close of the…

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Martha Cobble finds her sons Thurston Cobble and Ned Cobble after a 40-year search

The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA)

August 16, 1889

A Mother's Search.
An interesting incident has just been
brought to light in Owensboro, Ky., in
which Martha Cobble, who served a
great portion of her life in slavery in
Virginia, and who forty years ago was
separated from her children, is the he-
roine. The mother and her offspring
were owned by a planter in Richmond,
Va., and at the…

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Robert Cox reunited with his wife after 24 years

Richmond Daily Dispatch (Richmond, VA)

February 27, 1879

MANCHESTER AND VICINITY.
Midlothian.-The quiet village of Midlo-
thian [Midlothian] was the scene of an incident several
days ago the like of which rarely occurs.
In the spring of 1855, Robert Cox, a negro,
belonging then to a gentleman in this vi-
cinity [vicinity], was married to a woman of the same
neighborhood. Several months after…

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John Williams reunited with his mother Harriet Blackwell after 32 years

Asheville Daily Citizen (Asheville, NC)

December 31, 1892

FOUND HIS MOTHER
John Williams Visits His Mother
After an Absence of 32 Years.
The Knoxville Tribune of yesterday
contains a long account (which was
printed as original in the Gazette this
morning) of the re-union of a mother
and son, who had not seen each other
for thirty-two years. The people were
colored, the mother's name being…

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Unidentified parents reunited with their daughter after 20 years

Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD)

July 29, 1875

A TOUCHING SCENE.-The Newtown (Md.)
Gazette says: The steamer Tangier last Satur-
day [Saturday] landed at our wharf a negro woman who
had been sold "way down South" some twenty
years ago. She belonged to the Rush estate,
and her father and mother, whose heads are sil-
vered [silvered] with the frosts of many winters, have re-
mained…

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Robert Anderson and Ida Pryor reunite and remarry

Staunton Daily Leader (Staunton, VA)

January 9, 1905

Romantic Lives Of Slave Couple.
A marriage license was issued at Hagerstown last week to Robert Anderson, of Weverton, aged 74 years, and Ida Pryor, of Staunton, aged 67, both colored. The story reads like a romance. The couple were married before the war and both were slaves down in South western Virginia. Anderson was sold and separated from…

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Harrison Bradley and his wife reunite after 21 years and remarry

The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH)

August 17, 1880

AFTER MANY YEARS.

Reunion of a Colored Man and His Wife,

Who Were Separated During the Days
of Slavery.

SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER.

YELLOW SPRINGS, OHIO, August 16.—In the
year 1857, when the baneful curse of slavery
existed in the South, the marrying and intermarriyngof
colored people were not recognized
by the forms…

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Wesley Torry reunited with his wife after 21 years

Public Ledger (Memphis, TN)

June 28, 1882

ROMANTIC MEETING.

An Aged Colored Couple Renew
Acquaintance After Twenty-one
Years’ Separation.

San Antonio Express, 25.

Wesley Torry, an old and well
known colored man of this city, had
the pleasure last Saturday evening of
meeting his wife, whom he had not
seen before in twenty-one years, during
slavery times. An attempt of…

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Rev. Mack Henson finds his father

The Austin Weekly Statesman (Austin, TX)

March 26, 1891

A SAD DEATH.

After Many Years an Aged Father Meets His
Son and Soon After Dies.

A pathetic death occurred in thi
city day before yesterday that i
worthy of more than a passing notice.

Since the war Rev. Mack Henson, a
colored preacher of this city, who because
of his earnestness as a minister
and his courteous and gentlemanly…

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Brothers Nathan Branch and Lee Branch reunited after 66 years

The Chicago Weekly Tribune (Chicago, IL)

July 14, 1899

FORMER SLAVE BROTHERS MEET

Nathan Branch of Evanston Finds by
Chance Lee, from Whom He Was
Parted 66 Years Ago.

After a separation of sixty-six years Nathan
Branch, the oldest colored man in
Evanston, will meet his brother Lee of
Macon, Ga. The last sight they had of each
other was in an auctioneer’s room on a
plantation in…

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Henry Wilson reunited with his sister after 39 years

The Jacksonville Daily Journal (Jacksonville, IL)

November 4, 1903

FINDS SISTER AFTER YEARS.

To meet a sister after a separation of thirty-nine years is the recent experience of Henry Wilson, the colored butler who has been at the executive mansion through the administrations of Governors Ogles-by, Altgeld, Tanner and Yates. Wilson was born a slave in Missouri in 1855 and was held with his mother for more than…

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