Discovering the Balanta Women in America

Case Study: Donaflyn Crawford Sr.

 Researching My Maternal Ancestor

I took the Maternal dna test with African Ancestry; the test results came back saying that I share maternal ancestry with the Djola and Balanta People of Guinea Bissau. I also took a autosomal test with Ancestry.com; the autosomal test gives you your total dna make-up. Ancestry.com allows you to construct a family tree, view other people’s trees, search Census Reports, Death Certificates, Marriage and Divorce information, Wills, etc. My Ancestry.com dna test shows that I have dna in the Senegambia area as well as other areas in Africa.

I found a dna match in Ancestry.com who had a woman in her family tree who seemed to match my Djola Balanta Ancestor; her name is Marie Francois Senegal. I found a second dna match with the same person in her family tree (Marie Francois Senegal). One of the dna matches was helpful and gave me information about Marie Francois Senegal. The dna matches also had the husband of Marie Francois Senegal, his name was Jean Dit Ingui Masse. I was able to find a baptismal record for Marie Senegal and a document that mentioned her husband. One of the documents calls her a slave and is written in French. Then I found a third dna match who had a branch in her family tree that has Marie Francois’ descendant.

In my tree, some of the names that I have on my maternal side are Peacock and Sanders, both of whom lived in Johnston, North Carolina. So I looked to see if any of these three dna matches had Peacock and Sanders from North Carolina in their trees. The three trees are different sizes differing in the number of people in their trees. One of my dna matches has Peacock from North Carolina and Sanders from North Carolina and Louisiana. And the Peacock branch is the same branch that is in my tree; the White Peacocks. I am related to the White Peacocks and my Black Great Great Great Grandmother was Emoline Peacock.

Keep in mind that Guinea Bissau in Africa did not exist as Guinea Bissau when Marie Francois Senegal was born. The Kaabu empire was in the area when she was born in 1732.

I found her birth year and her place of birth as well as details about her father who was born in Senegal from a book called “St Landry up from slavery then came the fire” by Leona W. Smith. The book states “I be bought by de Masse family” (Marie Francois Senegal). It also says that Marie Senegal was born in Cape Verde, which is a group of Islands off of the West African Coast. Looking at other dna matches and their family trees, I saw the names Lopes, Gonsalves, and De Pina. These people were from Cape Verde according to the family trees. Here is another excerpt from the book; “We agrees to use de last name of Senegal when we be free” (Marie’s son). I will continue to look for more evidence but I have added Marie Francois Senegal to my family tree.

GENERATIONS OF BALANTA WOMEN IN AMERICA