A peculiar institution indeed

Ok, I can't let Black History Month pass without at least one posting on the subject, especially when it involves genealogy. History and genealogy have been passions of mine for a long time, and were the impetus behind my recent book.

But, only this morning did I learn of the research of Air Force veteran Carl Bryant of Nashville, Tennessee.

Over the last 6 years, he has been able to collect quite a bit of information on his direct ancestor Sherrod Bryant, who died in the Nashville area back in 1854.

Old Sherrod was apparently quite a wealthy man. According to Carl's documentation, he owned about 700 acres--more than his neighbor Andrew Jackson!

And, as was so often the case among large southern landowners of the time, he also owned a lot of human property.

So, slavery reared its ugly head in Carl's research.

The very ironic part of this whole story is that Carl Bryant is a black man.

And, so was his ancestor Sherrod Bryant!

You can read all about it in a recent article in the Nashville newspaper:

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070222/NEWS01/702220382/1006/NEWS