History in My Bones

About the Book

Not content knowing that his father's African roots rest in 16th century Angola, author William Howard embarked on a 7-year search for the history specific to his male paternal ancestors during the era 1525 AD to the present. Starting with the stories passed on to him by his grandfather who died in 1976, William relied on DNA test results plus printed and oral history to substantiate what his grandfather told him as well as what he could not. The result is "History in My Bones," the title of an essay William wrote for his extended family. The book documents the history of every one of his paternal ancestors who lived in several parts of the world from the 16th century to the present. They include the son of an African chief, an Afro-Portuguese-Filipino serf whose fathers sailed with Portuguese explorers to Asia, and the second wealthiest nonwhite property owner in Halifax County, Virginia. To further document the history, William traveled to Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and to the American locations where these male ancestors lived. Using his camera, face-to-face interviews, and such rarified sources as the "Virginia Carolorum;" "England Birth and Christenings ,1538-1975 Database;" and of course U.S. Federal and local census records since 1790, and other sources, William documents his fascinating story with over 300 endnotes, court cases, and photographs. This material explains the history of his ancestors since the early 16th century in Africa and goes on to explore the life of his ancestral Mbundu family who escaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and lived among the Black Rocks (Pedras Negras) of today's northern Angola. "History in My Bones" is an unusual story of free and enslaved African-American ancestors written in a way no other African American has dared to before now.

About the Author

William Howard was born in New York City where he earned his Bachelors Degree from the City College of New York. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, its School of Social Service Administration, and from the University's Division of Social Sciences. The author has been researching and writing about his maternal and paternal family since the late 1980s. He has traveled to Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe, and parts of the Americas to photograph and to visit sites important to his ancestry. He now lives in Chicago.