Woman Discovers Freemason Family History Connection | A New Leaf | Ancestry

that is your great great grandma molly like she looks just like my granny get ready for a journey of personal discovery that begins with a new leaf hi i'm daisy fuentes welcome to a new leaf sylvia hi i'm so excited i'm so happy to meet you me too it's gonna be great tell me everything oh my gosh where do you want me to start this has been a milestone year for me i turned 40 i became a brand new grandma and so i just feel like this is the right time to start learning about my family history my ancestry i know a lot about you know my polynesian background but like what else could there be i don't really know much about my great-great-grandparents and if i could start filling in some blanks and share that with baby saints generation what do you say we really dig deep and find out let's do it i'm excited i'm ready all right sylvia so where would you like to start how about dna [Music] seeing all of her dna at once sylvia was a little surprised she knew she was over half polynesian what she didn't know is she's about 1 4 european and almost a quarter sub-saharan african on her father's side sylvia has never traced back further than her grandfather and now tell me what you see she looks like my grandma that is your great great grandma molly like she looks just like my granny [Music] so your great-great-grandmother was born in 1858 in kentucky which of course means that she was likely born and slaved wow she passed away in 1935 so she did live through the emancipation and lived the end of her life as a free woman now get ready to meet your great-great-grandfather charles shaw oh my gosh this is molly's husband yes i have something for you that is rare for that time and that's his obituary charles shaw age 65 a highly respected colored man living on the farm of l.j larkin died this morning he was a native of virginia and has been a tenant on the above name farm for 30 years he leaves a wife and 10 children the funeral was held this afternoon and was in charge of the colored lodge of masons he was very respected and he was a member of the masonic walden lodge number 17. so he was a freemason that is incredible oh sylvia i still have more stuff that i want to show you there's more for you to learn so what do you say you take a little trip with me awesome let's do it hi hi how are you today hi sylvia i wanted to introduce you to dr brenda stevenson nice to meet you dr steven so wonderful to meet you she is going to educate you on what life would have been like for your great great grandpa charles shaw as a black freemason in the 1800s it's gonna be fascinating and i can't wait to hear all about it tomorrow at your meet the baby family reunion do you think i'll leave you guys to it okay so what exactly did the freemasons do well the freemasons were really important they're part of a self-help and uplift movement that black people had during the time period we were not thought of as being equal to other people and we weren't treated that way so black people within their communities within their masonry organizations began to organize and to help themselves out so this is a tradition that started way back in the 18th century is still thriving today is really important to the black community really important to black manhood i am more than honored to learn all of this information and to meet you for giving it all to me thank you so very much it is always wonderful to speak to someone about their glorious wonderful families with the family gathering to meet her new grandson sylvia hopes to make a connection between the past and the future hello everybody oh look a little sleepy baby saying hi i'll leave you to it i've been super curious about my family history kind of wanted to know more about my great great grandparents and so they were able to go back and find my great great-great-grandmother mary molly shaw she was born into slavery she lived through emancipation so amazing and then they were able to find my great great grandfather charles shaw he was an african-american freemason just telling my children that these are your great great great grandparents there's no words to describe how amazing that felt i am so proud of these two they're amazing amazing people that they would produce this and i could produce this generation and now a new one it's amazing thank you thank you thank you thank you learning about my past has kind of altered the direction that i've seen for myself going in the future i want to be able to give my kids and saints something to look back on and say hey my mom my grandma she did this for us and look where we are because of that it's amazing

Channel: Ancestry

Views: 306,756

Keywords: ancestrydna, ancestry, finding your roots, family tree now, surname, family tree, ancestors, family search, dna discovery, dna tests, dna test kits, dna analysis, ancestry com, family connections, ancestry.com, family history, heritage, ethnic heritage, history, family, adoption stories, relatives, family members, freemason, freemasonry, free masons, a new leaf, family history stories, ancestry stories

Id: ugGjn6GveBk

Length: 6min 44sec (404 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021