When Dad told me about Livas Anderson, he also claimed that Osborne Perry Anderson was the cousin of his grandmother, Catherine Anderson. Years later, Catherine's grand-niece, Saxonia Harris Shadd, shared the same story. The search for a connection continues.
Born: 17 July 1830, Chester County, Pennsylvania
Death: 11 December 1872, District of Columbia
Burial: National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery, Hyattsville, Prince George’s County, Maryland
Osborne Perry Anderson was born July 17, 1830, in West Fallowfield, Chester, Pennsylvania, to Vincent Anderson, a free man of African descent, and Sophia Taylor Anderson, a "white woman with red hair." His birth was followed by the birth of three brothers named James, John, and Emanuel.
Sometime after 1850, he left Pennsylvania for Canada. Some believe his venturing to Canada was directly linked to his association with Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who opened a school for African American children in West Chester, PA. Although Mrs. Shadd Cary’s influence may well have been critical in his decision to travel north, he may also have been influenced by Anderson's family members already living in Chatham, Ontario. Once in Chatham, Osborne worked for Shadd Cary as a printer.
In the spring of 1858, abolitionist John Brown arrived in Chatham to hold the Chatham Convention. Osborn Perry Anderson was elected to Brown’s provisional government. Mr. Anderson became one of only five men of African descent to accompany John Brown on his fateful raid on the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in October 1859; he was the only one to survive.
Born: About 1785, Perhaps in Maryland
Death: Before 1881, Chatham-Kent, Ontario
Burial: Unknown Location, Ontario (Possibly Harwich Township, his last recorded residence.)
The first part of Livas's life is told through family lore. He was never enslaved. It is said that he was born in Maryland about 1785, but he jumped from a ship in Charleston Harbor during a fire in 1821. His escape from the ship was aided by a British sailor who helped him reach Nova Scotia. It is further reported that Livas took the British sailor's name in honor of the help given.
Historical records trace a man who lived in Baltimore from at least 1830 when the first of four children were born, to perhaps the early 1840s. According to historian Linda Brown-Kubisch, he arrived in the Queen's Bush, Wellington County, Ontario, in July 1843. By 1851, he and his family appeared in Canadian census records in Harwich Township, Kent County, Ontario. He is last seen in the 1871 Canadian census living next door to his daughter Mary and her husband Addison Smith.
Along with Osborne Perry Anderson and Isaac Shadd, Addison Smith is listed as a delegate to John Brown's Constitutional Convention in Chatham in 1858.
Livas's children were Catherine, who married Robert Freeman; Mary, who married Addison Smith; Bathemia, who married James Freeman; and Livas, who married Rachel Wallace.
His granddaughters, Bea Smith Harris and Hester Freeman Meehan preserved and shared Livas's connection to Osborne.
There is no paper trail. There is no conclusive DNA match linked to a well-documented family tree.
We have a story passed down by two of Livas's daughters, Catherine Anderson Freeman and Mary Anderson Smith, contemporaries of Osborne.
Vincent Anderson, Osborne's father, was born about 1806 in (Fauquier County) Virginia. In 1830, he married Sophia Taylor in East Fallowfield, Chester County, Pennsylvania, where their four sons were born.
Livas Anderson may have been born in Maryland, as indicated in the 1880 census for his son. His children were born in Baltimore between 1830 and 1837.
Other than the decade of their children's birth, what connects these Anderson families?
Connecting these two Anderson families is an ongoing project, told here with the hope that another generation will sustain it and, perhaps, prove it.
Osborne Perry Anderson was born free. It is unclear whether his father, Vincent, was free at birth in 1803 or was manumitted sometime before he appeared in the 1830 US Census.
Livas and Vincent could each have gained freedom as members of families who escaped their enslavement. Either could have been the son of an enslaved father and a free woman, thereby being born free. Both men enter history fully grown, without documentation of their birth.
Livas is believed to have been born free around 1785, possibly in Maryland. However, according to family lore, he was on a ship in Charles Harbor in 1821, from which he escaped. Was he free but kidnapped into slavery? Was he a sailor, a Black Jack, seeking escape from the often torturous life of black sailors? Was he born enslaved, escaping in 1821 by jumping from a ship?
There are many unanswered questions. A tenuous common thread could be the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers. Manumission of people held in bondage by Quakers began in the mid-1700s. If Livas and possibly Vincent were born free, a Quaker connection could provide a plausible explanation.
Chester County, Pennsylvania, home of Vincent and Osborne Anderson, was one of three original Quaker jurisdictions in Pennsylvania. Baltimore, home of Livas Anderson and his family, is about thirty miles from Olney-Sandy Spring, Maryland, another longstanding Quaker community.
DNA testing has revealed a connection between Livas's Anderson family descendants and some of Sandy Spring's earliest Black families. Unfortunately, even DNA has been unable to connect Osborne's family to either Livas's descendants or to the Sandy Spring community.
Vincent Anderson had three other sons besides Osborne. Brothers John, James, and Emanuel appear with the family in the 1850 and 1860 US Census, but records for the brothers beyond that date have been difficult to locate.
Recently released early Pennsylvania birth records revealed a baby purported to be the son of Osborne Perry Anderson and Judith Ann Nelson. Judith married William Henry and her son, Jesse, was raised using the Henry surname.
Many Anderson and Henry surnames appear among my DNA matches, but so far, none has revealed a direct link to Vincent or Osborne.