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Richard “Dick” Patrick – An Old Slave 2-4-25

Betty A. Burnett

Updated: 3 days ago

My Patrick ancestry line- Richard Patrick (1835-2/20/1929)


I am resuming where I left off yesterday with my research. While in the courthouse in Greensboro, trying to get information about my ancestry, a man from a community college in another county  (township) asked me what I was looking for. I told him that I was trying to find information pertaining to my mother’s father side of the family. He asked me the name; it was given to him; he was familiar with the slaveowner’s records.


The catch was this, during my research, the slaveowner did not name all his young slaves; some just had numbers. He said if I came up with a name, I would have something to go on.

Some days or a few weeks or so later, I went to the Community College where the man worked and he provided me with more information.


The man told me to go to another township to the courthouse and look for the last will and testament of the slaveowners. After having a lengthy conversation with the man, I headed to the courthouse in the next town. Mind you, they did not have the advanced technology that we have today, and oh what a lot of work using a microfiche. I believe he was about eight years old, was brought into slavery and owned by D. Patrick.

As I said yesterday, it was well worth it! I searched until the name of a slave boy name “Dick” was listed along with other slaves. I believe he was about eight years old. When I calculated the age of my great-grandfather’s birth, it was 1835. That’s as far back in history that I was able to go.


Also, many people think we are from Irish descent because of the name Patrick; we are not Irish, we are of African descent. Even though that line of my family carries the slave owner’s name, we are African Americans with a rich history and a heritage to be proud of.


During the conversation with the man at the Community college, he knew where the slaveowner’s property was located. He gave me directions and contact information for the grounds keeper. She agreed for me to come on the property. Once I went, she showed me the slaveowners gravesite. I eventually lost contact with her, but a few years ago, shortly before I moved to New Jersey, I drove to the mass piece of property that has been developed into a community of homes.


Fast forward - Another county, years later- I called the landowner’s daughter-in- law around 1999, where my great grand pap had lived and died; she told me they had a picture of my great grand pap. I called the landowner’s daughter-in- law around 1999, and she told me they had a picture of my great grand pap. When I tried to contact her again, she could not be reached. However, many years later prior to my move back to New Jersey, a friend and I drove to the landowner’s granddaughter in laws' home, no advance notice.


We went and knocked on the door, and I told her why I was there and wanted to know if she had the picture that her mother in law told me about many years ago. She had seen the picture of the man who was thought to be “Dick” upstairs a few days before we got there. She brought the picture from upstairs and allowed me to take pictures with my cell phone.

Great grand pap Richard standing at the corner  of the house "Dick" Patrick at the corn
Great grand pap Richard standing at the corner of the house "Dick" Patrick at the corn

There is a gap somewhere between my great grand-pap Dick as to when he was freed, married Caline and they had eleven children. Some of their children were born in the county where he was once a slave boy. Then he and the family moved  to Guilford County (Gibsonville, NC). So back to the courthouse in Greensboro, I found birth and death certificates through the microfiche, which included “Dick” death record. The record said who the informant was, where and when he died, and that he was an “old slave” and was buried in Rock Grove Cemetery in Gibsonville, NC.

Well folks, I may not have fully accomplished what the Spirit prompted me to do about my ancestry from the Patrick descent, but I feel great in achieving my goal to that point. I did learn this, that even though my great grand pap “Dick” was free from the Patrick slaveowners, then the gap; once he reached Guilford county he was a sharecropper (indentured slave). My research was by divine providence indeed!



I guess Grand pap "Dick" decided to stay, but years later some of his adult children moved on and eventually became landowners.


Grandma Alice and Aunt Hattie – Separated and Reunited


His handmaiden, Betty A. Burnett ~ burnettministries.org

 

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