Our connection to the Jesuit slaves has been known for more than 12 years. It was first discovered in the spring of 2004 as the family was making plans for a reunion in New Orleans. I continued to look for Nace, Jr., having found a person I suspected was my ancestor buried in the St. Ignatius Church Cemetery, St. Mary's County, Maryland online on the church's website in 2007. The website included photos of the church, St. Ignatius, and a list of the people buried in the cemetery. An Ignatius Butler was listed on parchment in the church as well as Gladys Butler, Lucinda Butler and Johnston Butler.
The search for Nace, Jr. took on a new life after the Georgetown Memory Project(GMP) was formed. In November 2015, Richard Cellini, an alumnus of Georgetown University, founded the GMP to identify the the slaves sold in 1838 and to located their living descendants. As a member of that organization a new search was launched, first by me and then by a member of the Butler Research Team. We came to the same conclusion: Ignatius Butler who is buried at St. Ignatius is our Nace Butler, Jr., the runaway.
I thought that we were on the right track when an Ignatius "Nace" Butler along with a wife and children were located on the 1870 census in the St. Inigoes, St. Mary's County, Maryland. His birth date was estimated to be 1818. In the Jesuit Plantation Project records which include the profiles of the slaves, Nace Butler birth date is 1818.
In December 2016, I was contacted by Glendon Stubbs, the great-great-great grandson of Ignatius Butler. He provided me with a descendant chart for Ignatius Butler constructed by Malissa Ruffner, a professional genealogist hired by the GMP. Her research confirmed what we found: Ignatius Butler is the runaway who was born in 1818 and died
to be continued
