ANDRE KEARNS
Andre Kearns is a Washington DC native with family roots in the American south and a passion for discovering new ancestors and learning their stories. As an African American, he knew that he descended from enslaved persons and likely slave owners. Through his family tree research, he was surprised to discover that he also descend from free people of color, Native Americans, multi-racial persons and Melungeons. Discovering his free people of color ancestry in particular has unlocked a rich aspect of American history previously unknown to him, which he is now learning more about through the lens of his own ancestry. He has found that researching his Cumbo ancestry in particular is exciting because of the family’s significance in American history and availability of documentation. The Cumbo family, with its various branches who today identify as black, white and Native American, represents a diverse tapestry that’s quintessentially American.
He is not a professionally trained historian or genealogist. By day, he works in the business and technology world. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Business Administration from Morehouse College. He researches in his spare time. When he realizes (or is gently reminded by loved ones) that he’s spending more of his time researching the dead than enjoying the living, he shuts his computer down. He says all of this to say that his blog posts are from the perspective of a genealogy hobbyist with a passion for uncovering and sharing the rich history of the Cumbo family in America.