Texas Living Columnist Lloyd Bockstruck

11:50 AM CDT on Sunday, September 11, 2005

In 1992, Paul Heinegg released his genealogical study of the free black families of Virginia and North Carolina. His initial work was 462 pages. He has now expanded it to 1,355 pages in two volumes.

Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820 provides detailed genealogies of 600 free black families who moved from Virginia to the Carolinas. Because South Carolina did not create records at the local level, Mr. Heinegg had not included the free black families from the Palmetto State in earlier editions.

Until the birth and development of the rice and tobacco plantation economy, the South was a society with slaves but not one of slaves. Americans of African descent moved out of servitude into free society about as much as white indentured servants. Whites and blacks mingled and married. Slavery in colonial times was not that of the 19th century.

Mr. Heinegg has amassed an impressive amount of data and found that white men of property and social standing produced no more than 1 percent of the free children of color. More than 200 of the families he traces were descended from white women.

Genealogical research necessitates a firm understanding of law to discover the truth. In North Carolina, white males of 16 years had been subject to taxation. In 1749, the situation changed. "Negroes, mulattoes, and mustees" of both genders 12 and older became taxable. Accordingly, if you find your ancestor on a tax list thereafter with females taxed, you know you have a free African-American and-or Indian household.

One clue in the records might be the notation "refuses to list his wife." By claiming she was white, a free black reduced his tax by half. A tax collector had a vested interest in listing people as mulatto because he received a portion of the tax.

Those interested in black genealogy will certainly need to consult this reference work, and whites should do likewise. Bass, Mozingo and Pendarvis are such families. Unless you have had a DNA test for a profile of your ethnic background, it might not have occurred to you to investigate a bi- or tri-racial connection. John Bass of Norfolk County, Va., wed Kamiah Elizabeth Tucker, an Indian. Many of their son William's descendants married black Americans.

Mr. Heinegg's groundbreaking work offers a wealth of information not only for the genealogist but also for historians and shows how valuable such research is for understanding the heritage of America's families. Copies may be ordered for $89.95 by visiting www.genealogi cal.com, calling 1-800-296-6687, or by mail from Clearfield Co., 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore, MD 21211. Handling is $5.50.

•The Mesquite Historical and Genealogical Society's annual seminar will be Sept. 24 at the Mimosa Lane Baptist Church, 1233 N. Belt Line Road. The $27 registration fee should be posted to the society's P.O. Box 850165, Mesquite, TX 75185-0165. Emily Croom of Houston will be the speaker.

Lloyd Bockstruck supervises the genealogy section of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas. Address questions to Family Tree, Texas Living section, The Dallas Morning News, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265.

E-mail texasliving@dallasnews.com