1. WILL FAMILY REUNION PRESENTATION THE JOURNEY

2. PRESENTATION TOPICS 2 Family Origin 8 Alabama to Louisiana 3 All about DNA 9Original members of the Will family 4 Coming to America 10 Family Union 5 Georgia to Alabama 11 Civil War affects 6 The Slaveholder 12 Under one roof 7 The surname Will 13 Life after slavery

3. Q: Where did the families originate? A: According to YDNA, William’s father(s) was from West Africa between the area of Cameroon and Benin and Sinie’s mother(s) according to mtDNA lived somewhere in Central Africa. William’s Family Sinie’s Family The source of Sinia Will DNA sample came from cousin Frances R. Kibler Hughes daughter of Lumada LOWE and Augusta KIBLER, SR.; and granddaughter of Alice BENFORD LOWE WALKER and Ednie LOWE; and great-great-granddaughter of Laura WILL BENFORD and Robert BENFORD, SR. The source of William Will DNA sample came from William Brooks Will son of Frank Lee Will, Jr., grandson of Frank Lee Will, Sr., great-grandson of William Brooks Will and Sinia Elizabeth Powell Will.

4. mtDNA & YDNA Q: How does DNA determines family and where geographically the family comes from? A: Through a sequence of matches in the DNA Match 70,000 yrs Offspring Offspring L2 is an Africa lineage. It is believed to have evolved between 87,000 to 107,000 years ago. Its age and widespread distribution and diversity across the continent makes its exact origin point within Africa difficult to trace with any confidence. http://www.kknfa.org/haplogroups.htm Comment: In terms of DNA, all of us repeat ourselves, but the specific ways in which we do it make each of us unique. For women (L mtDNA) is the oldest DNA and for men (A YDNA) is the oldest DNA.

5. THE JOURNEY THE JOURNEY OF THE FAMILIES For weeks, months, sometimes as long as a year, they waited in the dungeons of the slave factories scattered along Africa's western coast. They had already made the long, difficult journey from Africa's interior -- but just barely. Out of the roughly 20 million who were taken from their homes and sold into slavery, half didn't complete the journey to the African coast, most of those dying along the way. And the worst was yet to come. Royal Navy sailors said that they could smell the stench of a ship carrying slaves anything up to 10 miles downwind. The slavers sailed from Africa across the Atlantic. Any slaves who had managed to survive the journey were taken to shore and were sold to plantation owners in the West Indies, the southern colonies of America (Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia) where they spent the rest of their lives working to produce goods like cotton, tobacco, sugar cane and coffee.

6. Q: How did the family get to North America? A: The British, Germans, Dutch and Portuguese brought slaves to harvest tobacco, sugar, rice, and cotton in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and south America Europe North America Africa South America

7. Q: Why did the families leave Georgia and travel to Alabama? A: Around 1820 Georgia had grown, and in the aftermath of the War of 1812, (which includes the Creek Indian Wars) land in Georgia became crowded. The George Family loaded up wagons around 1823 with their teams of oxen, mules and slaves, and moved down Federal Road towards Alabama On to Perry County

8. Q: Who was a known slaveholders of the Will family? A: Georgia Native Elias George, from 1827 - 1865 Elias George

9. Q: Were their any slaveholders with the Surname Will in Georgia or Alabama? A: Some in Alabama; None in Georgia from 1750- 1830 As early as 1752, colonists from New England, Virginia, and the Carolinas poured into Georgia, bringing with them their families, servants, and sometimes entire religious communities. By 1775, these "frontier" settlements had established extensive coastal cotton and rice plantations. The frontiersmen brought into the colonies many surnames from the old countries of Germany, France and England. The surname Wills meaning son of Will was one. From that time the spelling of the name has varied somewhat and has been found also to have been spelt as follows: Willes, Wylls, Wils, Wiels, Wiells, Wells, Walls, Whills and Will. These are all variants of the Wills surname. The earliest settlers of the name were from Maine, Maryland and Virginia around 1630. Based upon the numerous Will families in Maryland and VA, the origin of the Will surname may have come from one of those locations by one of the parents of William and Brooks.

10. GOING WEST Q: When did the family leave Alabama with Elias George to travel to Louisiana? A: “About the year 1848, a band of wealthy slave owners from Perry County, Alabama, fired by the reports of rich lands in the West, pulled stakes and set out for the land of their dreams. Their route followed the Tombigbee River to the Gulf of Mexico. Skirting the shore westward, they came to the mouth of the Mississippi River. After months of wearisome travel up the Mississippi and the Ouachita River, they chose a landing site located on a high ridge of land, which they called Alabama Landing. Going westward for ten miles, they selected a town site on hills that were above the overflow land. “ Comment: Elias took this route I believe to pickup the title to his land from the New Orleans Land Office. They arrived in Marion first settling by a swamp which killed some family members.

11. Q: Who are the known members of the (Will) family that came to the new settlement in Louisiana? A: William and older brother Brooks Comment: Their mother may have been with them but her presence is simply speculation. This was taken from the 1870 Census. William’s last name is missing and Brother Brooks name is wrong with the addition of being called William.

12. THE FAMILY UNION Q: When and where did William Meet Sinie Elizabeth Powell? A: Approximately 1852 when the Georges purchased land next to the Powells. 158 years later; we are here for a reunion

13. Louisiana Civil War Battles Map Q: Was the family near the Civil War Battles? A: “The undersigned slaveowners, who in complyance with the law, and Your orders send one fifth of their negro now between 18 & 50, Residents of the parish of Union…” to Fort Beauregard… Comments: In 1862 William was 34 years old when the order was given for the construction of "Fort Beauregard"

14. UNDER ONE ROOF Q: If William and Sinie had different slave-owners did they live together? A: Their marriage was symbolic, and their living was separate until 1865.

15. LIFE AFTER SLAVERY Q: What did the family do after slavery? A: The family owned property of today’s value of approximately $2,000,000