Otho Williams

Note: Otho’s entire life is chronicled in my Finding Otho: The Search For Our Enslaved Williams Ancestors

Nobody in Kathy Marshall’s maternal family knew anything about her great-great-grandfather, Otho Williams, except what was listed in the 1870 and 1880 US Census from Washington County, MD. From those sources alone, she learned Otho was born in Maryland in about 1834, was presumed to be a mulatto, and worked as a day laborer. Only five years after slavery, he had amassed a real estate valued at $1,000 and a personal estate of $100. Otho was married to Alice Virginia Logan, a twenty-year-old mulatto who kept house and cared for their one-month-old son, Edgar. Alice was also born in Maryland. She knew how to read, but not write; Otho could do neither.

By 1880, Otho had promoted himself to farmer status and his family has increased, consisting of his wife Alice, Edgar, Samuel, Otho Sherman (Marshall’s great-grandfather), William, and Charles. Daughters Mary and Alice were born after the census cutoff. 

Scouring hundreds of land and probate records, reading biographies about slave and free life in Maryland, delving into DNA testing, and exploring on foot the land where her ancestors toiled, gave Marshall the impetus to write an award-winning, research/how-to/storybook about Otho Williams’ life. Her passion is to encourage others to do the same for their families to replace the incomplete narrative that exists in so-called American history books.

Marshall was a researcher, analyst, and technical writer for the California Highway Patrol for thirty-six years. She has published several genealogy/story books on Amazon and her website, including Finding Otho: The Search for Our Enslaved Williams Ancestors, The Ancestors are Smiling!, Finding Daisy: From the Deep South to the Promised Land, and The Mystery of Margaret Booker.