“Dear Lisa,” he wrote. “I read with interest your letter of October 31….”

I was new at research and utterly clueless about where to start looking for information about slave forebears when I reached out to the late, great Hugh B. Johnston, Wilson County’s pre-eminent historian and genealogist. I was thrilled to receive his prompt reply. The letter was brief, but encouraging, and though I’d hoped for a complete and annotated report that left no end loose, I was confident that a breakthrough loomed just around the bend.

Unfortunately, here I am, nearly 27 years later, with the same fundamental questions burning:

1. Was Rachel Barnes the daughter of Willis Barnes, or his step-daughter as the 1880 census indicates?  If the latter, who was her father?
2. Did Willis Barnes belong to Joshua Barnes?
3. Was Toney Eatman, a free man of color from Nash County, Willis’ father? Was Annie Barnes Eatman his mother?
4. Was Cherry Battle‘s first name actually Charity?
5. Did she belong to Amos J. Battle?