I am Descendants of Slaves and England Royalty

slave plantation

Ballynahinch Castle/ Galway, Ireland

I have been researching my family history for last 15 years and came across something that surprised
me.  I recently found out that my maternal great grandfather was a white man named Joseph W.
Martin who married a Black woman, my great grand mother Illinois Williams.  She was only 14 years
old when she met him and he was 15 years her senior when they met.  The story was told to me by
my 90 year old uncle - William Kelley that they met while she was escaping some white men who
were trying to catch her,  she hid in his briar patch.  The entire story is written by me in a 3 book
series:  Illinois Strong published on  http://www.amazon.com/author/ellagoldsmith
My great grandfather Joseph Martin (1870 - about 1961) is a direct descendent of The Martins that
once owned Ballynahinch Castle in Galway, Ireland and Athelhampton House, a  haunted Castle
in Dorset, England built by Sir William Martin (Martyn ) in 1485.
 He is a direct descendant of my great  grandfather proven by DNA that I did about 2 years ago.
Once I found him on ancestry.com, I was then able to trace his lineage back to year 777 A.D.  He is
descendants of Lords, Knights and Barons in England.
Unfortunately, I was not that lucky with my  African American maternal great grandmother -
Illinois Williams Martin (1888-1957?),  her grandmother named Charlotte Williams born 1819 in
South Carolina  and her  husband Plato Williams was  born in 1816.  Finding them was actually
amazing because many of the  African American ancestors can only be traced back to 1850's because
many of their names were not listed on the census at that time.
They were only listed as either male or female and their ages were the only  thing listed on the
slave schedules.  Many of my African American Ancestors were slaves and many of my ancestors
unfortunately were white slave owners.   Their mixing together, having children and their children
having children and so on and son on, is how I came into existence.  Some of my ancestors fought on
both sides of the Civil War, both Union and Confederate Armies.  I was able to trace their lineage on
both sides of my family both my biological father, John William Shines and mother - Lula Mae
Kelley's ancestors found in almost every war in the United States of America including the War of
1812, the Civil War, World War I and World War II.  So you can say that my family definitely help to
build and fight for this country.  I am more an American than anyone else who proclaims to "Make
America Great Again".   America has always been great and will continue to be as long as God
Blesses America!!