When I first began searching for my family’s owner I was focused on Thales Neal’s family. However, I was frustrated when I couldn’t find any documents related to Thales or his father John Mayfield that proved they were my family’s owners. What I realized is that I needed to widen my scope when researching this family, not just focusing on the last one before slavery ended. I believe my ancestors sent a sign that I was looking in the wrong direction.
I subscribe to a few different forums on African American genealogy on Facebook. One day I happened to open my page and it automatically opened to the “Our Black Ancestry” forum. There was a post from a woman who had just started researching her African ancestry after discovering her 3rd great grandfather was a free person of color. She had been working with a lot of probate records and wanted to know if there was a place to record the names of slaves that she was finding among the records. I wanted to respond to thank her because I know how valuable that information is to those researching African ancestry, and there are quite a few that I have encountered who were not so friendly and forthcoming. As I scrolled through the many other responses and questions under her post I stopped dead at the last one that read “Yesterday I was researching my Neal side in Franklin County, GA and came across probate that had like 10 or 15 slaves names listed.” I couldn’t compose myself quickly enough to form a reply because I knew that was MY family she was talking about!
We exchanged information back and forth just to make sure, and she gave me a copy of the estate file that she had been looking in. It was for William Neal, who died in Franklin County in 1835. On the jacket of the file is a list of negroes: Terrell, Mahely (1844), Berry (12), Silvy (1842), Nancy (50), Reuben (28), Patience (27), Mary (19), Gabriel (12), Queen (8), Lewis (6), Sarah.
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Hi, I came across your post while looking into the history of Macon, GA (Bibb County). I am originally from Fort Valley, GA, but I live in Atlanta. I am in the Macon area rehabbing a house and even though I grew up in Peach County, I don’t know a lot about historic Macon so I was looking on the internet and found your post. I am Whitlei Neal Partee. My maiden name is Neal. My father was Warner Christopher Neal. Born to Willie and Sarah Mae Neal on 1/24/1962. My grandmother had 13 children from my grandfather. Your post strikes me because my grandfather Wille Neal was half white, owned land on Highway 96, and was vicious, often beating his children like slaves. This makes me think that he may have taken the a name his name from the William Neal you mention in your post. It was rare that black men owned land at that time, so I believe there might be a connection.
If you think we may be family, email me @ Whitlei.Neal@gmail.com
Hi Whitlei!
Thanks so much for visiting my blog! I am just starting to find more of my Neal family members who lived in that area. I will email you directly to compare notes and see if we are related!