Georgetown’s priests sold her Catholic ancestors. Then she found out in an unexpected way.

Patricia Bayonne-Johnson’s family members never talked much about their history. Some were perhaps afraid of what they would find if they dug too deep. For decades, questions about who her ancestors were, where they came from, and details of their lives went unanswered.
That changed on a spring day in 2004. Bayonne-Johnson, who grew up in New Orleans but was then living in Berkeley, Calif., had asked a genealogist to find answers for an upcoming reunion. And the inquiry’s results, in an envelope, had arrived.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/06/17/georgetowns-priests-sold-her-ancestors-into-slavery-heres-how-she-cracked-the-mystery/