Migration & Heritage Journey

Deep-ancestry context; no named family route established

E1b1a haplogroup (confirmed via M96/P147/M2 SNPs) traces to the Nigeria-Cameroon border region, the ancestral homeland of the Bantu expansion approximately 5,800 years ago. A haplogroup does not establish a specific ethnic group or a King-family connection through Gloria. This haplogroup was carried across West and Central Africa over thousands of years before the transatlantic slave trade forcibly transported millions to the Americas.

Transatlantic slave-trade history; no family crossing identified

The Bight of Biafra (modern southeastern Nigeria) was the primary embarkation region for enslaved Africans arriving in Charleston, South Carolina. The Middle Passage — the horrific transatlantic crossing — lasted 2 to 3 months in cramped, lethal conditions. Mortality rates ranged from 15% to 30%. Charleston received approximately 48% of all enslaved Africans arriving on the mainland of North America.

Historical port; no King-family arrival record established

Charleston was the largest port of entry for enslaved Africans in mainland North America. Gadsden's Wharf processed hundreds of thousands of enslaved people. From Charleston, the domestic slave trade distributed people throughout the American South, including to Alabama and the Carolinas. No record examined establishes this as the King family’s port of arrival.

Charles King (b. ~1815) and Julia King (b. ~1820) born enslaved

The candidate King households include Charles King, born circa 1815, and Julia King, born circa 1820, with Alabama birthplaces recorded in the research. Their relationship to Barklee and their route into Alabama have not been established. Alabama's cotton economy drove massive demand for enslaved labor during this period.

James King (b. ~1843) and Ellen King (b. ~1853) born enslaved

James King was born enslaved in South Carolina circa 1843, and Ellen King circa 1853. Census records consistently list South Carolina as the birthplace of children in Charles King's household. These birthplace records do not establish a particular migration route or a continuous family line to Barklee.

King household research; the connection through Gloria is unconfirmed

Camp Izard was a U.S. Army fort established February 27, 1836, during the Second Seminole War. After military use ended, it became a freedmen settlement. The King family settled here after emancipation in 1865. James King appears in the 1870 Census as a free man heading his own household. The proposed line from Charles through Samuel and Buster to Gloria is incomplete. The Sam funeral record does not establish Buster’s father, and Gloria’s parentage remains unconfirmed. Key locations include Camp Izard, Ocala, and Kendrick. Burials at Faith Memorial Gardens, Ocala, the cemetery formerly called Lincoln Memorial Gardens (Find a Grave cemetery 72190; the earlier “Pinelawn” reading of Buster’s funeral record was a misread). Lewis King’s two source names for his burial place refer to that one cemetery.

Westfield Sanders candidate family — Alabama

The Westfield alumni association reported that Clarence Sanders and Lucile Johnson married November 21, 1953 in Bessemer, Alabama. A matching FamilySearch marriage index and the 1940/1950 Sanders household provide new evidence for this candidate family. Their relationship to Barklee’s father, Clarence Jr. of Ocala and Cortland, remains unresolved. See the Research page for original sources.

Westfield Sanders candidate family — Chicago

The alumni association’s 2003 anniversary report places Clarence and Lucile Sanders in the Chicago area after their 1953 Bessemer marriage. Their move date and route are unknown. This is evidence for that couple’s Alabama-to-Illinois history, not yet a proven migration route in Barklee’s direct ancestry.

Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery — final resting place

Earlier candidate research places the Westfield/Chicago Clarence Sanders at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois. The identification of this man as Barklee’s grandfather remains unconfirmed; keep the cemetery lead separate from the established Clarence Jr. record.

Clarence Jr. settled here; Barklee born 1994

Clarence Douglass Sanders Jr. (1952-2025) followed the Great Migration pattern from Ocala, Florida, to the Northeast. He studied political science at SUNY Cortland and raised his family in the Cortland and Virgil area. Barklee Sanders was born in Cortland in 1994. The family's presence here represents the second wave of the Great Migration's northward movement.

Gloria A. King currently resides here

Gloria A. King, born in Florida in 1936, currently resides in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. A separate African American King family has roots in Chambersburg dating to the 1860s, though Gloria's connection to that line is undocumented.

Barklee Sanders currently based here

Barklee Sanders, born in Cortland, New York, in 1994, is currently based in San Francisco, California. As the researcher and creator of this heritage project, Barklee represents the continuation of the family's westward movement across the American landscape.

Haplogroup T2b deep origin — mitochondrial ancestry

Haplogroup T, the parent of T2b, traces its deep maternal origin to Southwest Asia / the Near East roughly 25,000 years ago. This lineage carries Catherine's biological maternal ancestry (23andMe assignment T2b, confirmed September 19, 2026 and shared with two Laliberté-line relatives) through an unbroken chain of mothers stretching back thousands of years.

Haplogroup T2b reaches Europe with the first farmers

T2b is one of the maternal lineages carried into Europe by Neolithic farming populations from Anatolia and the Near East, roughly 8,000-6,000 years ago, and it spread west with them to the Atlantic coast. It is a minority lineage today (a few percent of Western Europeans), somewhat more frequent in France, Ireland and the British Isles.

Haplogroup T2b in France, Ireland and the British Isles

T2b is found across France and Atlantic Europe and is comparatively common in Ireland and Britain. Catherine's direct maternal thread runs through the Adams line (Eugenie Louise Adams of Lowell, MA, with Irish and English surnames), so T2b fits that branch; her wider autosomal ancestry, 24.8% French plus 5.4% Irish, reflects the French-Canadian Laliberté side as well.

Five generations of Roireau dit Laliberté on the south shore of the St. Lawrence

The Laliberte name begins in the parish records of Bécancour, Gentilly and Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets: Michel Roireau (1728–1808) and Catherine Mailhot; their son Guillaume Laliberté-Roireau (1771–1850), who married Marie-Anne Lafond in 1797; his son Guillaume Roiroux dit Laliberté (born 1799), who married Marguerite Meunier dit Lagacé at Gentilly in 1820; and their son Esdras (born Bécancour 1838), enumerated with his parents at Somerset South in 1871 and in Lebanon, New Hampshire by 1880. Sources: Nos Origines persons 383530, 383531, 383618, 383619, 383536 and 383537; 1871 census (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:M42C-92N).

The Gatien, Daragon dit Lafrance, Parent and Allaire families of the Richelieu valley

Evelina Gatien’s ancestry runs through the Richelieu valley parishes: François Daragon dit Lafrance married Thérèse Levreau at Chambly in 1804 (the act names both sets of parents); their son Hyacinthe married Flavie Parent, of the Marieville Parent and Allaire families, in 1857; and their daughter Delphrose (Alphonsine) married Jean-Baptiste Gatien, son of Louis Gatien and Marie Coiteux of the Brome and Shefford townships, at Marieville on July 5, 1880. Jean-Baptiste and Alphonsine died at Sherbrooke in 1944 and 1938; their daughter Evelina, born 1890, married Elzephir Laliberte in Lebanon, NH in 1906. Her descendants on 23andMe report her birthplace as Lawrenceville, Estrie. Sources: Nos Origines persons 1046528, 130580, 2008290 to 2008300; FamilySearch arks 1:1:X4Q4-Z479 and 1:1:X435-C8YC.

The colonial Adams and Stearns families west of Boston

Roger Adams of Newton married Hephzibah Russell of Lexington on November 9, 1777. Their son Smith Adams Jr. (1784–1856) married Lydia Stearns of Waltham in 1807; she died in 1810, eleven months after the birth of Smith Adams 3d, who moved the family to the mill city of Lowell. Sources: Lexington Record of Marriages p. 145; Newton and Waltham Vital Records (Newton lines 290 to 494, 18120, 18123, 28324; Waltham lines 5711 to 5862 and 7070).

The Hurley family, Catherine’s Irish strand

Hannorah Hurley was born in Ireland on June 24, 1850 to Michael Hurley and Ellen and died in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1889, aged 38; her death record is the one primary source on this strand. Her county or townland is not yet known. Her son Smith Joseph Adams is Catherine’s great-grandfather, so T2b, Catherine’s mitochondrial haplogroup, is not this line (it passes through Eugenie Lafleur and Eugenie Louise Adams), but the autosomal Irish ancestry partly is. Source: Massachusetts death record, Lowell, v. 401 p. 127 (FamilySearch ark:/61903/1:1:NWQ7-VQ1).

Four generations of the Adams family in the mill city

Smith Adams 3d and Lydia Whitfield of Hollis, NH settled in Lowell, where their son John Quincy Adams (1848–1928) married the Irish-born Hannorah Hurley, and his son Smith Joseph Adams married Eugenie Lafleur of Rouses Point at Lowell on June 20, 1900. Their daughter Eugenie Louise, born in Lowell in 1907, married Ovide Laliberte and moved to Lebanon, NH. Smith Joseph, Eugenie Lafleur, John Quincy and Hannorah are all buried at St. Patrick Cemetery. Sources: FamilySearch arks 1:1:N4Z9-5HL and 1:1:NWQ7-VQ1; Find a Grave 72851845, 72838337, 72842742, 169298318.

Lafleur family of Rouses Point

Eugenie Louise Lafleur, Estelle Laliberte's maternal grandmother, was born in Rouses Point, Clinton County, New York about 1878 (her 1900 marriage age; Find a Grave says 1883) to Merile Lafleur and Catherine Patenaude, and married Smith Joseph Adams of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1900. The earlier working model that Catherine's Laliberté line itself lived here under the anglicized name 'Liberty' was corrected on September 19, 2026; Clinton County enters the tree through this Lafleur line.

The Laliberte home at 32 Young Street

Esdras Laliberte and Mary Leduc were in Lebanon by 1880, enumerated as Liberty; their son Elzephir was born there in 1883. Elzephir and Evelina Laliberte raised their family in Lebanon; their son Ovide, a letter carrier and WWII Marine, married Louise Adams of Lowell in 1936 and raised four children, Estelle among them, at 32 Young Street (1950 census). Estelle graduated from Lebanon High School in 1956. Ovide, Louise and Estelle are all buried at Sacred Heart Cemetery.

Estelle Laliberte’s adult life in New York

After 1956 Estelle worked in New York City as a governess and then for more than 25 years at Macy’s; Catherine was born in the city and adopted. Estelle died at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx in 2008 and was returned to Lebanon for burial.