Michael Williams
1 May 2023
The greatest threat to me ever discovering my ancestral connection to Geer Cemetery was New York’s closed-adoption laws. In any closed adoption state around the country, adoptees who wish to search for their roots are denied access to their birth records. A chance opportunity in 1996 changed the prospect of me never being able to trace my ancestral past. Thanksgiving Eve was the day that everything changed. After watching a daytime talk show about locating long lost family, I decided to use a five-dollar calling card that had 20 minutes remaining and rely on what little information I had to embark on a search through New York directory assistance. All I knew was my biological surname, the catholic orphanage that handled my adoption, an elder sister who was 13 years my senior, and that I was raised in Brooklyn.
After accumulating a few dozen phone numbers across New York’s five boroughs to try to locate my biological family, the last number on my list was a success. The number belonged to a residence near Hempstead, Long Island. The woman who answered my call turned out to be my first cousin, who was in a great position to lead straight to my biological sister and mother. My biological sister and I had a chance to talk on the phone. Through our conversation, my sister and I realized that we were 13 years apart in age because I had turned 18 and she had just turned 31. Before I was extended an invitation to meet my birth mother and the rest of the immediate family, my elder sister and I had our own private meet and greet. The success of our brother/sister meet-up led to an invitation to meet my biological mother in person for the Christmas holiday. That reunion led to the opportunity for me to meet the eldership of the family. In 2011, one of the elders I met was Cousin Lomax. Cousin Lomax possessed something I thought I’d never be able to get my hands on, the family’s genealogy booklet. The family genealogy booklet had been created before I was born. Not long after Cousin Lomax and I spoke on the phone, he offered to mail me one of the last copies of the original printing of the family tree and research notes from the early 70s and 80s.
The family tree listed my birth mother’s name, Jo-Ann Harth. I followed the family line back to my ancestors, Daniel Goodloe and Mariah (Justice) Goodloe, who’d been enslaved at the Stagville Plantation near Durham, NC. A closer look at the tree revealed my ancestor’s brother Louis Goodloe and his wife Harriet (Justice) Goodloe. Two brothers who married two sisters. I knew I needed to try to vet all the newly discovered information that I had received to get me started on my genealogical quest. My first step was to join the Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society (AAGHS) Pittsburgh PA chapter and apply their research methodology to confirm my genealogy. Over time, I was able to discover Daniel Goodloe’s death record and saw that City Cemetery was listed as the burial place. A quick on-line search informed me that City Cemetery was the common name for Geer Cemetery and that it was located on 800 Colonial Street in Durham. I immediately booked a trip to Durham, NC to experience Geer Cemetery in-person. The year 2015, had proven to be a year of incredible discoveries and Geer Cemetery was one of them. I booked an early flight to allow me to spend as much time there as possible.
Once I arrived at Geer Cemetery, I was struck by how forested and neglected it looked. It literally looked like a jungle. I was crazy enough to approach the wooded entrance not realizing that I didn’t have the right footwear. Nevertheless, something came over me and compelled me to bolt through the woods walking across ivy and Irish Moss laced tree trunks and skipping over ground depressions. At one point I had to hop-scotch my way through the heavily wooded sections of the cemetery. Finally, I reached a maze somewhere in the middle part of the cemetery. I felt one with nature. I looked up at the towering trees above me and noticed the glaring sun rays peering through the trees. There was a palpable sacred presence all around me. There were leaves everywhere covering what seemed like a walking path. The ground felt flat. For a moment, I stood there listening to the sound of nature all around me. In the distance, I noticed tall overgrown bushes. Instead of going near the overgrown bushy section, I decided to walk along the section where the grass was the lowest and followed the leafy brick road into the burial ground. I came to a section on the path that had a cluster of headstones to my right. For whatever reason I noticed an abundant stream of light that shone on a particular cluster of headstones. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to investigate. As I approached the area, I hoped that I would see Louis Goodloe’s headstone. I found him! The light that shone on Louis’s headstone was peppered with surrounding leaves and periwinkle patches. I was impressed at how well the headstone was preserved. The inscription on the headstone indicated that Louis Goodloe was born in 1820 and died in 1903. I walked a few feet around Louis’s headstone to see if his brother Daniel Goodloe or their wives’ headstones survived, but there was no evidence of it.
It was such a gratifying feeling to come face-to-face with Louis Goodloe’s headstone. I bowed my head in silence pondering the depths of what life might have been like for formerly enslaved people who lived under the weight of the institution of American slavery. Yet somehow my Goodloe Family endured long enough to see freedom and build a new path of dignity and honor. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the chance to find the actual burial site of my own Pre-Civil War ancestors who lived through the American slavery, Reconstruction, and the early days of Jim Crow apartheid. Something kept me from retreating and accepting New York’s status quo regarding closed-adoption laws. This journey has taught me that there’s always another door that will lead you to truth. Be curious. Be fearless. Be informed. Know that the truth you seek is on the other side of your act of faith!
About the Author: Michael Williams is a Brooklyn NY native. He serves as the Membership Chair for Friends of Geer Cemetery.