MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (DML) — The woman on the left is my grandmother, Yut-Seul Yee (or Yee Yut-Seul in proper Chinese naming order). The woman on the right is my great-grandmother, Myrtle Mae Robinson Yee (or Jackson or something else). My great-grandmother tended to be guarded about her origins.

Actually, she outright lied about them. Sometimes the reason was understandable, such as to get around anti-miscegenation laws in effect at the time that she remarried after my great-grandfather Yee Jock Leong’s death. Other times, I’m not sure why—maybe because of some unnecessary shame over the fact that she descended from former slaves.

My great-grandmother was born Myrtle Mae Robinson. My mom was always under the impression that my great-grandmother was half-Chinese and half-Spanish. According to my mother’s “Statement of Personal History” from the time of her enlistment in the U.S. Air Force, my mom listed Myrtle’s birth details as 5 Apr 1894 in Santa Barbara, California. We have a vague Bible record to back that up.

But that past was a fiction created by my great-grandmother. I cannot say with certainty why she was so secretive about her past. I am sure some of her motivation stemmed from the daily racism she encountered in American life. She did pass herself off as white, for example, in order to remarry an Irishman in Indiana after my great-grandfather, Yee Jock Leong (1883-1936) died. She and my great-grandfather (who was persecuted by the federal government as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Acts) faced a racist backlash from his Chinese family when their relationship began. So it may make sense that, after my great-grandfather’s death, my great-grandmother tried to rewrite our—or at least her—family history.

If she was embarrassed by her history, she need not have been. It is one thing to dissemble to get around laws that had no business being on the books, but as for the rest . . . well, slavery wasn’t a choice.

The fact is that African Americans did not submit to slavery. They resisted in many ways. They often intentionally worked slowly and inefficiently, sometimes they sabotaged their owner’s crops and property. They planned or participated in what was largely unsuccessful revolts. The most effective resistance option, yet one fraught with danger, was escape to freedom. In the years before the Civil War, many escaped.

The Underground Railroad was a conduit for escaped slaves to flee to freedom in Canada, a British dominion where slavery had been outlawed. Canada was an ideal location for escaped slaves to flee to, as it was under no obligation to return escaped slaves back to the United States, whereas escaped slaves (and free blacks) in the U.S. were under constant fear of being “arrested” and returned to (or kidnapped into as in the case of Solomon Northrup) bondage under the Fugitive Slave Law.

—

My great-grandmother’s cover story began to unravel because of a family mystery that I was damned determined to solve.

My mom never knew who her father was, and my grandmother died with the secret. In the 1980s, I was sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, for some USEPA training as part of my job. Given that my mom was born in nearby Dayton, I went there to see if I could find her birth certificate. I found nothing for my mom, therefore found no solution to the mystery I started with.

I did find birth records for my grandmother and birth and death records for her two siblings (both of whom died in infancy). The family physician, an A.A. Smith, consistently listed my great-grandmother’s race as “Negro” or “Colored.”

Initially, I dismissed the notations. My great-grandmother had something of the look of a Filipina—which would fit the story my mother believed of her being half Chinese/half Spanish—and with the darker skin it could have been an honest mistake on the doctor’s part. My dismissal of his identification changed when I (trained as a biologist) started investigating genetic ancestry. I encouraged my mom to take it up, too. We found that we both have African American ancestry.

Smith, the family doctor, actually knew what he was talking about.

As I began searching for more records of my great-grandmother’s ancestry, I started finding plenty of records for a Myrtle Mae Robinson in Ann Arbor. Add to that the fact that we discovered in my grandmother’s scrapbooks a lot of material showing that my great-grandmother grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it is easy to infer that something did not add up with my great-grandmother’s self-professed backstory.

Myrtle Mae Robinson’s parents, according to the 1900 U.S. Census (above), were William A. and Hannah Robinson. Hannah Robinson was named Hannah Marie Woods at the time of her marriage to William Robinson in Ann Arbor on Nov. 20,1890. She was listed in the 1900 U.S. Census as Black. Her death certificate (May 30, 1908) said she was born in Kentucky on Aug. 4, 1862, and that her parents were Calace Taylor and Catherine Cox. Hannah’s trail to the past ends with the names of her parents and her origins in Kentucky.

William A. Robinson (1863-1937) is another matter. He frequently appears in the U.S. Census from Michigan (1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930; much of the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed in a fire). His home still exists in Ann Arbor (at least it did the last time I looked at the image on Google Maps). He is consistently listed as Black and that he was born in Canada. His parents were John A. Robinson (ca. 1836-after 1910) and Harriet Ann Taylor (ca. 1847-1898).

All the U.S. Census records in which John A. Robinson is named (1870, 1880, 1900, 1910) list his birthplace as Virginia and his race as Black. The birthplace of his parents is variously listed as Kentucky (1880), Virginia (1900), or Africa (1910).

As yet, I have found no records of John Robinson’s sojourn in Canada in that nation’s records, but I know that he lived there before returning to the United States after the Civil War. Several of his children were born there: in addition to my great-great grandfather, William, my great-great-great-uncles James H. (ca. 1865) and John W. (1869) and my great-great-great-aunt Elzina (1867) were born in Canada. His wife, Harriet Ann Taylor, was also born in Canada.

By 1870, John Robinson, Harriet Taylor, and their children William A., James H., Elzina, and John W. resided in Pittsfield, Michigan.

Harriet Ann Taylor is listed in the 1861 Canadian Census as living with her parents, Peter Taylor (ca. 1814-1880) and Margaret White (ca. 1828-1888), in Peel Township in southern Ontario near the modern cities of Kitchener and Guelph. She is listed as Black in the 1861 Census of Canada and in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census.

Peter Taylor is listed as a farmer in the 1851 Census of Canada for Peel Township and living with his wife, Margaret, his daughter Harriet; son Samuel; and daughter Janie (probably Margaret J.). His birthplace is variously listed as Maryland or Virginia. His birth year ranges from 1811 to 1815, depending on the source. The 1861 Census of Canada lists three additional children: David, Frances, and James. The 1871 Census of Canada revealed an additional child, Albert.

Margaret White’s birthdate is harder to pin down, ranging from 1821 to 1831, depending on the source consulted. Her birthplace, like Peter Taylor’s, is given as either Maryland or Virginia.

By 1880 their family was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. According to the 1880 U.S. Census, Peter Taylor’s and Margaret White’s parents were born in Virginia. The family’s religion is listed in Canadian Census data as Western Methodist (1851), Episcopal Methodist (1861), or Methodist (1871). This may prove relevant later.

This leaves me with (at least) three confirmed African American ancestors who were born in the United States and who were living in Canada before or during the Civil War:

• My great-great-great-grandfather John A. Robinson,
• My great-great-great-great-grandfather Peter Taylor,
• My great-great-great-great-grandmother Margaret White.

From the time I discovered the Canadian Connections, I suspected my ancestors had taken the Underground Railroad to freedom. But I had little evidence to back it up until I learned more about their community in Peel Township, Wellington County, Ontario. That community was commonly called Queen’s Bush.