This browser does not support the Video element.
Texas families asked to check DNA
FOX 26 Reporter Abigail Dye has more as scientists in Tulsa, Oklahoma are looking for answers from families in Texas regarding the Tulsa race massacre victims.
HOUSTON - Scientists in Tulsa, Oklahoma are looking for answers from families in Texas. Genealogists have traced DNA from Tulsa race massacre victims to multiple places in Texas and want to get in contact with the possible victim's families.
They're looking for families who are in the following regions with the following surnames: Bremby family (also spelled Bembry, Brembry and Brimbry) in Sealy, Texas and Austin County, Traylor family in Bowie County, and Davis family in Kaufman, Texas.
SUGGESTED: Houston crime: 16-year-old charged with 5 crimes after police chase ends with deadly consequences
Alison Wilde, the genealogy case manager for the Tulsa Race Massacre Mass Graves Project, says they've connected with families all over the country to fill in the missing pieces after finding remains in unmarked mass graves.
"Being able to provide any information to the community on the Tulsa race massacre, the victims, about the events of 1921 is such an important task," said Wilde.
In 1921, the Greenwood district of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a thriving mecca for Black entrepreneurship. Black business owners came from all over to build Black Wall Street, touted as the most successful Black community in the nation at the time. Wilde says many people from Texas moved to the area.
"You'll see a great number of them, a very high percentage were born in the state of Texas," she said.
Black Wall Street had hundreds of businesses, including grocery stores, theaters, medical facilities and so much more, creating a self-sustaining community.
On May 31, 1921, a white mob surrounded a Tulsa jail where Dick Rowland, a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman, was being held.
A group of Black men came to the jail to try and protect Rowland and at some point, a fight broke out between the two groups. Several people were shot in the altercation.
Later that evening and into the next morning, the white mob invaded and raided Black Wall Street. More than a thousand houses were burned to the ground, more than 300 businesses destroyed and more than 300 Black people were murdered.
The victims, and the truth of what happened, seemed to disappear for nearly one hundred years.
This browser does not support the Video element.
In 2021, the City of Tulsa decided to begin excavating and searching for the remains of the victims killed.
Over the past two years, they've discovered several unmarked graves of those who they believe to be victims, and now they're working to notify and connect with families.
"The response from Texas has been fantastic, and if we could get the same response from Brimby and Trailor family, that would be awesome," said Wilde.
Wilde says she encourages anyone who thinks they have ties to Black Wall Street to get a DNA test and submit it to GEDMatch, so it can be automatically compared to the victim samples they have on record.
She also encourages anyone with the above-mentioned surnames in their family tree to fill out their information sheet here.