HAMPTON, Va. — Learning about your family history may be easier than you realize thanks to a free online resource. Just ask Evandra Catherine.
She's eager to share what she’s learned about her family’s connection to Fort Monroe.
Watch: Fort Monroe ceremony marks 15 years of remembering African lives lost in the Middle Passage
“Let’s be honest. As a black person in America, you want to know where you’re from, right? It’s like it’s in you. You want to know but you just don’t know how to know. It was always that yearning to know ‘Okay, I’m African, but where did I start in America’ right" Catherine said.
Using the website familysearch.org, she found documents that list her relative, Chloe Ann Spruell, as being at Fort Monroe from 1864-1867. Catherine says Chloe, her kids, and her husband were enslaved and Chloe and the kids came to Fort Monroe when her husband went to fight in the Civil War.
“Chloe had records for rations, she had records for pensions, and all these records at Fort Monroe," Catherine explained.
Watch: 'This one feels so deep:' African Landing Memorial Plaza dedicated at Fort Monroe
Enslaved people who went to Fort Monroe were considered contraband by the Union Army, a policy that allowed them to live in camps protected by the Army and not be sent back to their enslavers.
Tony Gabriele is a member of the Contraband Historical Society. Among other things, the society is working to document and preserve the history of contrabands at Fort Monroe. When News 3 met with him a few days before Juneteenth, he was dressed as the Union general who started the contraband policy.
Watch: Tony Gabriele explains history of contrabands at Fort Monroe
“The road to Juneteenth and the end of slavery began here at Fort Monroe," Gabrielle said.
History he believed is especially important during the country’s 250th anniversary.
“People are having a big celebration for the 250th anniversary but it also seems to be happening at a time when large parts of our history are becoming obscured, or even blocked from being known," Gabriele emphasized.
Watch: Projects underway at Fort Monroe helping shape future of the historic site
Catherine hoped her story will help inspire others.
“If we could get more real, true history and we can do this search it will lead you cot these revelations and these findings, right? Then, you know we’re all American," Catherine said.
Click here to see how we use AI at WTKR News 3.
