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Biography

last updated 10 April 2025

Jane Gates was born enslaved in Maryland about 1820, and died 6th January 1888 in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland, United States. She was buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery there.

Jane Gates was a slave until Maryland abolished slavery in 1864. She had six children. They all looked white, and in 1870 she paid $1,200 in cash for a house in an essentially all white neighborhood in Cumberland, Maryland.

Henry Louis Gates Jr said on "Finding Your Roots" (aired April 2025):

We now know that she was owned by three different white families, starting with the Stovers, then the Stotlers, and then the Bradys .... we now have a complete paper trail beginning about 1830."

Jane Gates was last owned by Samuel Dunlap Brady, purchased 28 April 1860 from the estate of Christian Stotler of Alleghany County, Maryland, along with her sons Henry Gates and Edward Gates. The "family story" was that Brady was the father of her children, but that was disproved in 2006.

On the PBS television show "Finding Your Roots," aired 8 April 2025, genetic genealogist CeCe Moore proved that Charles Wesley Kelley, son of Hannah Kelley, was a partner of Jane Gates, and the biological father of Edward Gates, ancestor of the scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of the show. (relationship path).

See Finding My Roots | Season 11 | Episode 10 | aired 8 April 2025 on PBS < link >

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1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules
Gender Female
Race Mulatto
Age 30
Birth Date 1820
Residence Date 1850
Residence Place Allegany, Maryland, USA
Role Enslaved Person
Slave Owner
Christian Stotter Christian Stotler of Alleghany County, Maryland
All Enslaved People (Gender) Age
Female 30 Jane Gates
Male 16
Female 14
Female 10
Female 1
https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/35590405?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22...

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Named in the will of Christian Stotler:
Item I desire that my Servant woman Jane be free after a further servitude of three years because of her faithfulness to my family.

Item I desire that my servant boys, Henry & Edward, sons of Jane my servant woman, be sold at private sale to good masters in the County in State & not be allowed to be sold out of the State.

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"Native Sons of Liberty" By HENRY LOUIS GATES Jr. Published August 6, 2006 in the New York Times:

"I have been obsessed with my family tree since I was a boy. My grandfather, Edward Gates, died in 1960, when I was 10. After his burial at Rose Hill Cemetery in Cumberland, Md. — Gateses have been buried there since 1888 — my father showed me my grandfather’s scrapbooks. There, buried in those yellowing pages of newsprint, was an obituary, the obituary, to my astonishment, of our matriarch, a midwife and former slave named Jane Gates. “An estimable colored woman,” the obituary said."

1. Residence: 1880 -  Cumberland, Allegany, Maryland, USA
2. Race: Mulatto
3. Ethnicity: American

• Updated from MyHeritage Match by SmartCopy: Sep 30 2014, 9:58:43 UTC

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From African-American Lives: Making the Journey WNET, 2006:

"Following Ailes' discovery, geneticist Dr. Rick Kittles finally lays to rest the rumor that Samuel Brady, or any member of the Brady family, had fathered Jane Gates' children. Y-chromosome testing reveals that Dr. Gates shares no descent with a confirmed male descendant of Samuel Brady and a descendant of Samuel Brady's brother, much to the disappointment of the Gates family."

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From an NPR interview with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Mentioned in the 1870 census - Jane Gates, age 51, female, mulatto, laundress, and nurse, owns real estate valued at $1,400; born in Maryland; cannot read or write. She managed to own her own home five years after being freed from slavery. Somebody (a white man) had to have given her the cash for the home, in a largely white neighborhood now on the Maryland Historic Register and still owned by Gates' cousin. Jane's obituary said: "Died this day in Cumberland, Md., January 6, 1888; Aunt Jane Gates, an estimable colored woman." Gates, her great-great grandson, was so inspired by her obituary and photograph that he created the PBS series "Finding Your Roots." ∼

Jane was featured on Season 11, episode 10 of the PBS Show "Finding Your Roots". Research from the show indicate Jane had six children - including one named Maria. Maria was not mentioned in Jane's will so the researchers theorize she passed away prior to her mother. DNA analysis showed that the father of at least one of her children, Edward, was Charles Wesley Kelley (born 1824), a white farmer who was killed when he was struck by lightning.

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References

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 22 2023, 13:26:30 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 9 2025, 17:37:33 UTC
• Finding My Roots | Season 11 | Episode 10 | aired 8 April 2025 on PBS < link >