Randi Knott, a volunteer researcher at the T. Elmer Cox Historical and Genealogical Library, told African-American participants in a Saturday workshop that its easier than they might have thought to develop records and biographies of their ancestors.

Knott, who said she moved to Greene County four years ago and has been volunteering at the Cox Library on North Main Street since then, was one of several workshop presenters during Saturday's "Oh Freedom Emancipation Day Celebration Day" conference.

The biennial event, sponsored by the African-American Task Force Coalition of East Tennessee, was held in the Christian Life Center of the First Baptist Church.

Knott told participants during her workshop that the T. Elmer Cox Historical and Genealogical Library contains a wealth of information and records that can help provide information about their ancestors.

Historically, she said, "people of color have been deprived of the narratives that tell about their ancestors' lives."

But there are ways to recreate lost facts about ancestors.

Knott urged workshop participants to start with their parents and "write down everything you know," including names, dates of birth, names of siblings, cities in which they lived, marriages, occupations and school and churches attended.

She explained that finding significant information about an ancestor can begin with as little information as can be found on a tombstone.

She cited, as an example, research she did on the late Peter T. Richardson, whose tombstone in the historic Wesley Cemetery in the Wesley Heights neighborhood contained only his name, birth and death dates and a line that indicated he was a father.

Since the Wesley Cemetery was where African-American residents of Greeneville were traditionally buried in the 19th century, Knott said, she assumed that he was an African-American.

The tombstone also led her to think that he was married, had children and lived and died in Greene County.

Since Peter Richardson had died in 1888, Knott said, she checked the 1880 U.S. Census and found him listed as a then 43-year-old man whose wife's name was Sue and who was the father of six children.

A check of the 1870 Greene County Census, Knott said, found Peter Richardson listed as a 32-year-old who had been born in Virginia.

A subsequent check of marriage records revealed that Peter T. Richardson had married Susan Smith on Feb. 21, 1867.

The 1860 Greene County Census did not list Peter Richardson, Knott said. That might have been because he did not live here at that time or was then a slave. She noted that slaves' names were not listed in census records.

Possibly, Knott said, Peter T. Richardson was a Union Army soldier who had been discharged in Greeneville.

Susan Smith, according to the 1860 census, was then a 12-year-old girl of mixed racial heritage who was living in the home of James Galbreath, agent at the Greeneville railroad depot.

Since Susan Smith was listed by name in the 1860 census by name, she was not a slave.

But it remains unclear if she was an orphan or a child who had been apprenticed to the Galbreath family, Knott said.

Further checks of orphan and guardian records might reveal the answer to that question, Knott told workshop participants.

Knott also explained to workshop participants how even fragmentary information can sometimes lead to the discovery of previously unknown information about ancestors.

One such case, she said, is that of Thomas Bell Ross, a one-time Greene County slave who was trained as a blacksmith and who had purchased his own freedom.

Knott said she began researching Ross after discovering, in records, a note that on June 9, 1855, Ross had purchased, for $2,000, three slaves (a woman and two children) from a man named Joseph Henderson.

Henderson, Knott said, was shown in records to have been the owner of 13 slaves at the time the transaction was conducted.

"The amount paid for the three slaves was an unusually high price and the careful selection of Sylvia (the female slave) and what appeared to be her children gave a clue as to why Thomas Ross would pay such a high price for the slaves," Knott said.

Ross, she noted, did not appear in either the 1860 or 1870 Greene County Census, although he did appear in the 1880 California Census. In 1880, he had been living the El Dorado County, Calif, in the gold-mining town of Georgetown, Knott said.

At that time, Thomas Ross was employed as a teamster and his wife's name was listed as Sylvia, 52. The couple had two children. All were said, in census records, to have been born in Tennessee.

An obituary published in a California newspaper after his death, at age 61, on Sept. 6, 1884, revealed how he had first purchased his own freedom and then that of his family.

The obituary, Knott said, indicated that through his work as a blacksmith, Ross had purchased "with hard-earned money" his freedom "from a master his inferior in intellect."

Ross, according to his obituary, had left Tennessee in 1852 and traveled to California "for the purpose of earning money with which to buy the freedom of his family."

Knott noted that Ross had gone to California at the height of the so-called "Gold Rush."

His obituary, she said, indicated that he returned to Tennessee with a sizable amount of money but was "refused his family at three times the price."

Ross returned to California, but sought help from Andrew Johnson, the 17th president who was from Greeneville.

Apparently with Johnson's help, Ross was able to purchase his wife and children and return with them to California, Knott said.