Finding Josephine with Dionne Ford

Dionne's search for her family history began at age 12, when she asked a simple question: Grandpa, are you white?  Her grandfather’s answer sent her on a lifelong journey to piece together a family story and reveal a not uncommon but often untold part of American history.  His  grandparents were a slave named Tempy Burton and her master, Col. W. R. Stuart. Three decades after she first learned of this interracial, Civil War-era duo, she found another one of their descendants. Dionne's family’s history includes masters and slaves, Confederates and Senators, preachers and entertainers.  

Dionne Ford is a freelance writer and M.F.A. candidate at New York University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, More, Ebony and other publications. Her essay for MORE on her family’s history won two magazine awards. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters and blogs about her family's history at FindingJosephine.com.