A Louisville Family Learns About Their Ties To A St. Louis Slave Who Saved Lives

[Sherman A1]

For the past 30 years, Keith Winstead has been tracing the many generations of his family history.

“When I first started genealogy, I thought I’d be lucky to go and find a third great-grandparent. I got pictures now of ten generations,” Winstead said.

On a cold and windy day he was at Bellefontaine Cemetery with about 15 other family members who hail from different parts of the U.S., such as Louisville, Atlanta, New York and Cincinnati.

This is the Alexander family, and they're not just any random family; they have significant ties to an American legend: They’re closely related to Muhammad Ali. On a winter day, they gathered with directions in hand to walk the same path as a local legend, a St. Louis resident and civil war hero. His name was Archer Alexander, and he was a slave.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/louisville-family-learns-about-their-ties-st-louis-slave-who-saved-lives

[Karadeniz]

1. I'm not into genealogy, but sometimes knowing about an ancestor gives one

something to live up to. My family has always claimed kinship (great+ uncle) to Thomas Nelson who signed the decl. of ind., filled in for Jefferson as gov. of Va, sold everything to support the revolution and outfit the rebels for Yorktown. I'd be more interested in my soul's past lives, but I'm proud of that connection and wouldn't want to be among those hurting this "experiment."

[Sherman A1]

4. I've done some of my family tree

And you are correct that it does shed light on our ancestors experience. In many cases that is something to hold in great esteem, in others I have found not so much yet all are part of the fabric of our history.

[GeoWilliam750]

2. Thank you for posting

[Sherman A1]

3. My pleasure