Say It Ain"t So Joe!

Can you imagine what it must feel like if when you as a
civil rights activist finds out that your slave ancestors
where owned by ancestors of a prominent southern
segregationist senator. At first shock then anger but
in the end you'd probably have one good laugh. Read
on, the article will probably make your day.


The Rev. Al Sharpton said Sunday it was the "most shocking" news of his life when the civil rights leader learned he was a descendant of a slave owned by relatives of Strom Thurmond, the late senator who once led the segregationist South."I couldn't describe the emotions that I've had over the last two or three days thinking about this," he said at a news conference. "Everything from anger and outrage to reflection, and to some pride and glory."

Sharpton found out about the connection to Thurmond last week after the New York Daily News obtained his approval to work with genealogists to trace his ancestry.Researchers from Ancestry .com traced Sharpton's roots using a database with access to 5 billion records including birth and death certificates, slave narratives, census and bank records, and United States Colored Troops documents. They discovered that Sharpton's great-grandfather Coleman Sharpton was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather.

"I know there's no such thing as a boring family tree," said the chief family historian for Ancestry.com, Megan Smolenyak, who presented the findings to Sharpton on Thursday. "I knew we would find something, but I certainly didn't anticipate this."The information also showed his great-grandfather had been freed. Smolenyak said Sharpton was subdued and stunned when she told him about his family history.

"It's one thing to know or suspect perhaps your ancestors were slaves," she said, "but it makes it much more real when you hear names and find out how they were related to you."In a phone interview Sunday, Sharpton said he had one "awkward" encounter with the South Carolina Republican, in 1991 on a visit to Washington, D.C., in which the two barely spoke.




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