Charles Holman, an African-American lawyer, had been meticulously researching his family tree for over fifty years when he discovered a surprising piece of information linking him to the Bush presidential family.
Throughout her life, Holman, 66, collected histories, birth and death certificates, Census Bureau records and DNA matches.
Through her legal training, she developed a thoroughness and a knack for connecting with strangers through letters, emails and in-person meetings.
Gradually, she managed to connect with distant relatives, both black and white, reconstructing a family history that reflected America’s complex and fraught racial past.
Charles Holman, who spent five decades tracing his family’s genealogy, discovers that his relatives were enslaved by the Bush ancestors on a Kentucky plantation.
A Kentucky newspaper article linked Bush’s ancestors to those of enslaved members of the Thomas family, Holman’s ancestors. Pictured are former presidents George H.W. Bush, right, and George W. Bush, left, seen together in 2009.
During her research, Holman attended a gathering of white relatives who shared her last name and whose ancestors had enslaved hers.
He visited three plantations where his ancestors had worked without compensation and lingered in the tiny, cramped spaces where they probably lived, hoping to sense their presence.
The discoveries altered Holman’s perception of himself, his family, and his place in American history.
A few years ago, Holman made a significant discovery in his Maryland studio when he found a 1992 Kentucky newspaper article about a family that included a U.S. president and would soon add another.
The article, titled ‘President George Bush has Kentucky connections’, traced the lineage of then-President George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush back to ancestors before the American Revolution.
Holman was familiar with the names of Bush’s great-great-grandmother and parents and was able to match them to deeds and inheritance records he had previously discovered.
Moses Clark, Holman’s mother’s grandfather
Charles Holman is seen with members of his family and President Bush’s cousin, Kurt
The connection added a remarkable new dimension to her extensive family research.
“It was the coming together of things I had been looking for for years,” Holman told the Washington Post.
The newspaper article explained how George Herbert Walker Bush’s ancestors had moved from Virginia to Kentucky in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The president’s direct ancestors included Peter G. Foree and his daughter Lucretia Green Foree Holliday, who owned land in Anchorage, Kentucky.
According to Holman’s research, members of the Foree family, who were known to be the Bushes’ ancestors, enslaved members of the Thomas family, Holman’s ancestors.
The article was a major step forward in reconstructing his family tree.
“It was one of the best moments of my life,” Holman told The charge.
George HW Bush’s great-great-grandfather was associated with at least 11 transatlantic slave crossings from West Africa.
Although slavery was abolished in the U.S. after the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War in 1865, the transatlantic African slave trade continued.
Last year, a Reuters investigation looked into the links between slave owners and American political elites.
Former President George W. Bush’s chief of staff acknowledged findings suggesting the Foree family owned 25 slaves.
“A great nation does not hide its history; it confronts its flaws and corrects them,” Bush said at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“We cannot approach our founding promise of equal opportunity without remembering the founding sin of slavery. That haunting past inspires us to go further and faster on the path to a better future of liberty and justice for all.”
Genealogical research like Holman’s is a popular pursuit for many Americans, but for descendants of enslaved people, the task is often challenging because of poor record-keeping, often consisting only of first names recorded in property books.
It is astonishing that Holman was able to draw a direct line between Bush’s ancestors and his own.
“I think the fact that he was able to piece this all together was pretty amazing,” said forensic genealogist Katharine O’Connell.
Holman has revealed that she has since written letters to George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna Bush Hager, a television host on the Today show, but has so far received no response.
Despite the lack of response from the Bush family, Holman says he has been encouraged by the old stories he has heard that have been passed down through the generations.
One story was about how Robert Anderson Thomas, Holman’s great-great-grandfather, saw some cherry pies for the slave owner’s wife sitting on the windowsill when he was overcome by temptation.
“Robert Anderson Thomas, my great-great-grandfather, saw the pies, smelled them, but knew he’d never be able to taste them. They were pies for George Bush’s ancestor, but he was a kid and couldn’t resist,” Holman said.
‘He came up with the idea that if he could take a straw and put it on top of the cake, he could suck out the juice and taste some of the flavour, which he did without anyone detecting.
‘Later, when her mother was serving pies to George Bush’s ancestors, the slave owner’s wife remarked that they were the driest cherry pies she had ever eaten. And he found it so funny that decades later, long after he had run away and slavery had long since ended, he told this story to my grandmother.’