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…

Mr. Ambrose reunited with his family

National Anti-Slavery Standard (New York, NY)

October 12, 1865

A FAMILY REUNION. HOW AN ESCAPED SLAVE BECAME WEALTHY AND DISCOVERED HIS RELATIVES. A Chicago paper tells the story of the return to the South of an escaped slave, who had amassed wealth in the North, and recently started on a journey to discover his relatives, whom he found in Louisiana. The story is as follows: "A few years ago, a runaway…

Milton Douglas reuniting with his wife

Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)

September 7, 1882

We find this paragraph in the Charleston Advocate: Milton Douglas, an Edgefield (S. O.) negro, was married while a slave in 1859 to a colored girl in that county. After three months of wedded life he was sold and sent West. His wife married again, her second husband dying a few months ago. Milton, who had not been heard from since 1859 returned…

May Frances Thomas and Walter Thomas searching for father Lewis Thomas now Rev. Lewis Hudson

The New York Freeman (New York, NY)

February 26, 1887

First Ad: BOSTON. INFORMATION WANTED of the whereabouts of our father. LEWIS THOMAS, now said to be Rev. Lewis Hudson, pastor of a Baptist Church in Mississippi. He was formerly owned by a man named Shepard Miller, and was sold into the far South. Any one knowing where he may be found will kindly inform May Frances Thomas and Walter Thomas, at No.…

Mary Stowers found her son Willis Green after 28-year separation

The Owensboro Monitor (Owensboro, KY)

May 6, 1874

A Long Lost Mother.
----
[Evansville Journal.]

Twenty-eight years ago Mary Stowers,
a slave woman, belonging to Harrison
Stowers, of Owensboro, was sold to parties
living in Shelby county, Kentucky, and
was with her little girl of two years
taken away, leaving her boy, Willis
Green, then four years old, with her
former master,…

Mary Johnson found her son Charles Jackson

The Cleveland Gazette (Cleveland, OH)

March 14, 1891

MRS. MARY JOHNSON writes the editor
of THE GAZETTE that she has found her
son Charles, whom she has not seen for
ten years, by advertising in this journal,
and adds: “THE GAZETTE is a great race
newspaper.” The general verdict.

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…

Margaret Young reunited with her son Dowen Young

Appeal: A National Afro-American Newspaper (St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN)

January 1, 1898

FINDS LONG LOST SON
DOWEN YOUNG MEETS HIS MOTHER AFTER 36 YEARS

A Mother Sold and Separated From her Family in 1861, Found and Presented to her Son as a Christmas gift in 1897.

The happiest Christmas in all the great city of Chicago was, at the modest home of Dowen Young, No. 3142 Fifth avenue. It was a reunion of a mother and son torn apart…

Lucy A. Johnson responding to Eliza Husher (formerly Eliza Clark)

The Freeman (Indianapolis, IN)

July 16, 1892

I would like to know the whereabouts of Mrs.
Eliza Clark, formerly Mrs. Eliza Husher. My
history is a peculiar one. I saw in The Freeman
that Mrs. Eliza Husher wanted to know the
whereabouts of her sister, Mrs. Sallie Clark
and her brothers Tip, Tobe and the rest of her
brothers. Sister Sallie Clark is my grand-mother
and I, Lucy…

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.

Letitia Rodgers replying to brother-in-law Rev. James Kellogg

Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)

March 11, 1880

DEAR EDITOR-- I wish to inquire for the connections of the Rodgers family. My name is Letitia Rodgers. I came from Virginia in 1845. I had two brothers, Dennis and StephenBurg. I left them in Virginia; Dennis in Rye Valley, Marrian Smith county. Some time since I saw in an issue of the SOUTHWESTERN, the name of one James Kellogg, supposed to be…

Lee Barton reunited with his wife after 38 years

Eufala Daily Times (Eufala, AL)

May 10, 1891

AFTER MANY YEARS.

AFFECTING MEETING OF TWO SISTERS.

Special Telegram to the Inter Ocean.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Nov. 19.--Forty
years ago Julia and Emeline, two sisters,
were slaves upon the plantation of a master
by the name of Hall, in Kentucky. Emeline
left her sister one night, and with a party of
fugitives crossed the Ohio…

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

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…

John Thompson and Kitty Owens reunited and married after 25 years

The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

January 17, 1894

EX-SLAVES MARRIED.

Two Old Darkies United After a
Separation of Twenty-Five
Years.

The Groom Had But Ninety Cents To
Pay Magistrate Camp For
His Services.

Two ex-slaves who had not seen each
other for twenty-five years, were married
yesterday by Magistrate B. F. Camp at
his office in Court place. The principals
were John…

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…

John H. Coppage found his long lost brother

Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)

May 15, 1884

MR. EDITOR-I am under so many kind obligations to you for your trouble and my joy at finding my long lost brother. He has addressed me, and is in Texas. He read his name and my address. God bless the labors of your paper. JOHN H. COPPAGE. Tullahoma, Tenn.

John Easton found his mother after decades of searching

The Sun (New York, NY)

July 3, 1892

AFTER YEARS OF SEARCH.
A Former Slave Finds His Mother, and Proves His Identity by a Strange Mark.
From the Indianapolis Sentinel.
John Easton, a colored fireman at the Nordyke-Marmon Works, has been for more than twenty years trying to find his mother, and about two weeks ago got traces of her whereabouts. They were separated when he was 7…

Jo Hill replying to their mother Betsy Hill and sisters Margaret and Fanny Hill

Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA)

October 27, 1887

MR. EDITOR-- I have just learned that four years ago a notice appeared in your paper inquiring the whereabouts of Jo Hill, colored, signed Betsy Hill, Margaret Hill, Fanny Hill. I am the said Jo Hill. Betsy was my mother, the other two my sisters. I am here, and own a good plantation, and am anxious to learn their address, which appeared in your…

Jeff Frierson and Mary Burt reunited and remarried after 44-year separation

The Nashville American (Nashville, TN)

September 25, 1903

AFTER FORTY-FOUR YEARS

Jeff Frierson and Mary Burt Are Reunited
in Marriage.

Special Dispatch to The American.

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 24. --
A somewhat romantic marriage occurred
in colored circles last night. The
facts about it are these: Before the
Civil War, and in slave times, Jeff
Frierson, a slave belonging to the…

James Dogan found his first wife and his family

Reading Times and Dispatch (Reading, PA)

July 26, 1871

POTTSTOWN has an Enoch Arden in the
shape of a colored man named James Dogan,
who was a slave prior to the rebellion, and,
escaping into the Union lines, afterwards be-
came [became] a soldier and fought all through the
war. He became separated from his family,
and not hearing from them for several years,
subsequently married again.…

James Davidson found his daughter Miss Lena Davidson

The State Ledger (Topeka, KS)

April 13, 1894

Jack Corkley finds his mother after 40 years

The Cincinnati Daily Star (Cincinnati, OH)

January 23, 1879

Special to the Star.
LOUISVILLE, Jan. 23.---Jack Corkley, col-ored porter of the Short-line, has returned from Louisiana, where, after an separa-tion of forty years, he found his mother. She was sold as a slave when Corkley was a year old.

Hiram Jefferson reunited with son Thomas after 30 years

Daily State Gazette (Green Bay, WI)

November 15, 1893

After thirty years' separation Hiram
Jefferson and his son Thomas are reunited
in Janesville. The father became separ-
ated [separated] from his family just after the capture
of Fort Donelson, he being a slave on a
plantation near the fort.

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…