ME & Alex Haley.....A Genealogy Post-Part 2

* Part One of this Post is HERE.

So when we left off last time Kunte Kinte was sold to John Waller's brother, Dr. William Waller, after John Waller had half of Kunte's right foot chopped off so he no longer could attempt to run off.

According to the oral tradition in the Haley family, Kunte, who had been renamed "Toby" by his first owner John Waller, fell in love with another of Dr. Waller's slaves, a woman named Bell.
They had a child in 1790,  a girl they named Kizzy(or "Kesia" in the Mandinka language).  Supposedly her name meant "Stay Put" in Mandinka, Kunte's native tongue, and it was given to her to keep her safe from being sold away from their plantation.

But Kizzy ran afoul of the rules on Dr. Waller's plantation when she was a teen.  She had secretly learned to read and write* and being in love with a slave named Noah who wanted to escape up North, she wrote a fake pass from their master for him to take with him to keep him safe.
*The tv show told that Missy Anne, the niece of William Waller-his brother John's daughter, was Kizzy's playmate and had taught her literacy as one of the games children play.  Except this can't be true as Missy Anne was much older than Kizzy would have been and would not have interacted with her as a childhood friend.*

Kizzy broke one of Dr. Waller's rules(and a Virginia state law as well at that time)so he chose to sell her off to another master and plantation.
Dr. William and John Waller, the brothers share a common ancestor with me in Thomas Waller of Gregories, Buckinghamshire, England.  Thomas Waller is my 9x Great Grandfather.  Thomas Waller of Gregories is William and John's Great Grandfather.
But while this is interesting it doesn't make me a relative of Alex Haley, does it?

And this is where it gets interesting as far as my genealogy goes.

Dr. William Waller sold Kizzy off to Thomas Lea, a plantation owner in Caswell County, North Carolina.
Thomas Lea is my 4th cousin 6x removed.
His wife was Sarah "Sally" Lea who is also my 4th cousin 6 x removed.
Tom and Sally Lea were 1st cousins.

Tom's father was Major Lea and Sally's father was John Lea and they were brothers.
These two Lea brother's father was James Lea from Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
James Lea's wife was Ann Herndon who also happens to be my 2nd cousin 8 x removed.

Ann Herndon Lea's parents were Edward Herndon and Mary Elizabeth Waller. Mary Elizabeth Waller was my 1st cousin 9x removed and was also the sister of Col. John Waller the Immigrant and father of  the Waller brothers who owned Kunte Kinte.

So Mary Elizabeth Waller Herndon's daughter, Ann Herndon, was 1st cousins with the Waller brothers John and William Waller from Spotsylvania Virginia.
Ann Herndon married James Lea from Spotsylvania County.  Their son, Major Lea married Elizabeth Herndon.  Elizabeth's father was Richard Herndon who is the brother of Ann Herndon so Elizabeth Herndon married her 1st cousin Major Lea.

This is just a roundabout way to say that the WALLERS, the HERNDONS and the LEAS were all  cousins to one degree or another.
Are you confused yet? lolz

So as the Haley family tradition goes, Kizzy Kinte Waller was taken from Virginia down to Casewell County, North Carolina to become a slave of the Waller cousin, Thomas "Tom" Lea.  Tom thought her a comely wench so as some plantation owners did, he "had his way with her", the more accepted euphemism for rape and the prerogative of slave owners in that era.

Of that union was born a son, George Lea, having an African American mother and a Caucasian father, a mixed race child called a mulatto in that time.

Old Tom Lea took a liking to George and allowed him to work with his fighting cocks as Tom Lea had a penchant for booze, women and gambling.   He was a "poor Waller relation" until he made a fortune gambling on cockfights and parlayed his winnings into buying and training fighting birds.  He was known as one of the best cock fighters in the Caswell County and beyond.  George had a way with the birds so he became his father Tom's cock trainer and was given the nickname "Chicken George".
In the tv miniseries he was played by actor Ben Vereen but here is an actual photo of Chicken George Lea later in his life.

After being freed(story goes that he got his father very drunk and stole his manumission papers and ran off before the War Between the States began-it would have had to been around 1820 because that is the year Tom Lea died and George would have been 14 years old).  George had to flee Virginia not just because of the wrath his owner might bring down on him but the law in Virginia at that time was that a free negro could only stay in Virginia for a short time before they were required to "move on" or they could be re-enslaved(This law came into being in 1806 though many free black people did stay as the law was not always enforced depending on where you lived.)

George came back for his wife Matilda Murray and their children(at some point Tom Lea sold George's wife and children to the Murray plantation and Matilda took Murray for her surname after emancipation came)once the war was over and removed to Henning, Lauderdale County, Tennessee where he died in 1890.  He is listed in the 1880 Census as 74 years old and working as a servant in the household of William Posey.  He says he is a widower so Matilda probably was dead before 1880.

Here is a photograph of Chicken George's son, Tom Lea/Murray, who was a blacksmith by trade.  He married to Arena Irene Holt in Alamance County, NC and she lived to 1908.(Seeing that surname HOLT I am a bit scared to even attempt to research Irene's African American Holts as it may lead back to my white Holts and another master/slave sexual relationship) No one knows exactly when Tom Lea//Murray died or where he is buried but his will was probated in Lauderdale County, TN Aug. 3rd of 1903. Thomas Lea/Murray the blacksmith is my 6th cousin 4 x removed.

So, even though it's a horrible way in which we are connected, George Lea is my 5th cousin 5 x removed through his owner/father the plantation owner Tom Lea and I proudly call these people my cousins.

Which brings us to George Lea's 2 x Great Grandson, Alexander Haley, the acclaimed author.  He is my 9th cousin 1 x removed.

Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley 1921-1992

Bertha George Palmer 1897-1932, his mother

Cynthia Babica Lea  1875-1949, her mother

Tom Lea/Murray 1833-?, her father

George" Chicken George" Lea 1806-1890, his father

Thomas Lea 1770-1820, his father

Major Lea Sr. 1741-1843, his father

Ann Herndon 1706-1777, his mother

Lt. Major Tillman Lea 1742-1843, her father

Mary Elizabeth Waller 1674-1727, her mother

Dr. John Roberts Waller 1645-1750, her father

Thomas Waller  1610-1682, his father *common ancestor*

John Thomas Waller 1652-1688, his son

Susannah Waller 1680-1758, his daughter

Major Weatherford 1710-1774, her son

Rev. John William Weatherford 1743-1833, his son

Elizabeth "Betsey" Weatherford 1778-1854, his daughter

Sarah "Sallie" Mason 1805-1854, her daugther

Mary Agnes Driskill 1837-1894, her daughter

Robert William Harper 1881-1961, her son

Wirt Ross Harper 1909-1968, his son

Carole Frances Harper 1934-2000, his daughter

ME,her daughter

As for Alex Haley's paternal roots-it seems his Y DNA goes back to Scotland!  After Mr. Haley's death DNA testing became popular.  

Alex Haley's nephew, Chris Haley, back in 2007 had his DNA tested and the family story of the husband of Queenie, the subject of Haley's novel "Queen" and his grandmother's spouse having been born from an Alabama plantation Overseer named William Harwell Baugh(from Virginia but with family roots in Scotland before these Baughs emigrated to America)"taking his pleasure" with a half black/half Cherokee slave woman named Sabrina or Viney is true.

Link to News Story HERE. 

Sluggy