Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / American Patriot - TPR's In Focus - Feb 19, 2026

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American Patriot - TPR's In Focus - Feb 19, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  >> Speaker A: Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy
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  University's Montgomery campus, located on the
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  spot of Mrs. Parks historic 1955 arrest and
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  featuring exhibits that chronicle the history of
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  the Montgomery Bus Boycott. More information at
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  Troy dot edu slash rosa parks.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: From Troy Public Radio, this is in focus, and I'm
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  Carolyn Hutcheson. In our Genealogy in your Genes
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  series, True Lewis, a military veteran living in
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  Kentucky, shares how she traced her family lineage
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  to the American Revolution. And she'll be in
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  Auburn next week. True Lewis, welcome to Troy
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  Public Radio.
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  >> True Lewis: Carolyn, it's so good to be here.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: Next week is your week at Auburn University. You
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  will be in residence. Doing what?
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  >> True Lewis: I will be giving presentations on my family
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  history and how I got started from my true roots
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  all the way to the American Revolution. I'll be
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  attending some classes and getting a full tour,
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  which I'm excited about, and going up to Ada. And
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  later on after that, I'll be attending the Alabama
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  State Society Daughters of the American Revolution
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  State Conference.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: After you retired from the US Army, M, you went on
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  a genealogy search. What did you find out about
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  your ancestor?
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  >> True Lewis: Well, this all started when I was really little,
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  like in 1977 when, um, Roots came on and my
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  parents, who were my paternal grandparents, they
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  legally adopted me. My grandparents are the
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  grandchildren of the enslaved there in Alabama. So
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  I would hear all these stories. When my
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  grandmother from Midway, when she passed away in
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  1977, all these things were like little notations
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  on my soul. I called them. That would all come
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  back to me in 1998 after I got out of the
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  military. My parents were older then, and they
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  were ready to sing like birds about their lineage,
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  their history. And one day I asked daddy, I said,
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  we know all about Mommy's family in Midway, but
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  what about yours? Why do we have this Lewis last
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  name? What was your mother's name? So he said, oh,
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  my mom's name was Eddie Lee Rosanna Louisiana,
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  Savannah Lewis. But she was an ivory. And I knew
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  her dad, and he was a slave, and I knowed him, and
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  I was flabbergasted. And then he goes, he had 23
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  children. And, uh, at that moment, you realize
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  then that your parents in their 80s, they were
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  children at one point. They had a whole life
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  before you.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: How did you get to know more about that side of
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  the family?
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  >> True Lewis: I was so interested because I knew my mom's
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  history from Midway, but we didn't know about our
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  dad's line. So that's how I got to know Granddaddy
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  ike and his 23 children and three wives. And then
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  I started attending these family reunions in about
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  2003 when we finally met them, DNA came out in
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  2012. For me personally, the first question they
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  ask you on, um, family tree DNA, they say, well,
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  who's your earliest ancestor? But this is my birth
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  mother's line, my German mother. And I knew
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  nothing of her history. I knew everything I
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  thought about my African American paternal line,
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  but I didn't know anything about my maternal birth
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  mothers family. My mother's, uh, parents were
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  older when they had her. They passed away when I
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  was like three. My grandparents adopted me from
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  her because of the time that I was born in 1968.
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  So you have this loving versus all these turmoil
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  things going on. And I was born the day before Dr.
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  King passed away, so my mother couldn't keep me,
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  this little precious black baby. So it was safer
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  for me to stay with my paternal line. So back to
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  my DNA test. Even though my grandparents kept my
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  mother in my life, it was a, uh, closed adoption.
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  But they were so loving and from Alabama, and they
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  were people that are born in 1918 and 1923. But
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  they had the, uh, love and the wherewithal to know
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  to keep her in my life, even though my adoption is
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  sealed in the state of Pennsylvania. So that's how
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  I got to know my mom over the years. But I didn't
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  ever ask her any of those personal questions
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  because there's no blueprint on how to act when
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  you're adopted. But you have these birth parents
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  that are in your life. So it was always I was just
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  trying to walk the line and learn the line on my
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  own.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: You made a discovery that placed one of your
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  ancestors in the American Revolution. Were you
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  shocked?
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  >> True Lewis: I really was. This was all because I took a DNA
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  test and I needed to know who my earliest ancestor
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  was.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: Well, what did you find out about him?
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  >> True Lewis: Is this, like, really my patriot? And he was, I'm,
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  um, just still shocked. And even with going
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  through, filling out the application and learning
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  about these women before me, because I trace
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  myself through four women just to get to him. And
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  that already is a challenge because of their
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  maiden names. You're talking about 1905 all the
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  way to when he's born in 1744. He was a Weaver. He
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  had all these children. He owned all this land.
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  Out of all the children, the daughter that he had
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  that I fell up under, she's the only one that was
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  born outside of Pennsylvania, in Queensland,
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  Maryland. But I love the fact that he was a Weaver
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  and that he had this pension file. He also had it
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  was like a 1783 glass tax. So I can't remember all
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  the stipulations, but I think you had to have
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  property and you had some type of glass, but most
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  of the properties had like $100 worth. And he's
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  the only one on that page that had like $50 worth
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  of glass on his property. So that was another fine
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  that proved where he was at the time he was paying
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  taxes. And it was also some other census that they
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  had said he was a veteran with the 6 militia in
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  Pennsylvania. So he had all these footprints for
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  someone like me as his fifth great grandchild to
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  find. So. And who knew that when I joined in 2016
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  that all those a hundred and something years later
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  his grandbaby was going to find him. And I just
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  place him in high esteem because there's other
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  women that I enjoy in dar, especially the black
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  daughters. And he sits amongst them and their
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  patriots that African American patriots or
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  indigenous Indians. And I just feel like he's back
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  there with their patriots. Too true.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: Louis, you have unearthed a family history that
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  reflects American history. You also are a podcast
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  host for the dar.
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  >> True Lewis: It is called the DAR Today Podcast, where we
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  illuminate our legacy one episode at a time. I
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  have been selected to be President General Mrs.
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  Storage's National Chair for her administration.
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  And she decided that she wanted to keep the
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  podcast going and they needed a new host. And here
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  I sit once a month.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: So what's ahead for Auburn next week?
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  >> True Lewis: So I will be speaking at Pebble Hill one night.
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  I'm also going to be speaking to an NAACP chapter
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  there. I have two classes that I'll be going to
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  about history and community research. And they'll
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  be going over my website, um, mytruots.com and
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  they'll be picking a few stories for their lessons
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  and we'll go over that and how that all connects
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  with their education at the time. So I'm just
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  excited.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: What's it like for you to be returning to Alabama?
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  >> True Lewis: I'm just honored to be coming back to Alabama.
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  Just knowing that over the centuries, we're not
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  out of the narrative for America 250. It is a good
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  time during Black History Month to talk about all
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  of this. And black stories are scholarship. And
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  that arc alone to me is an American 250 story. All
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  the stories of enslavement, freedom, service. All
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  my history is a direct connection to America250.
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  And that's just a reminder that it's not separate
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  from American history. It's the foundation of it.
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  I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but Alabama
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  is in my soul.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: So True Lewis. Welcome home.
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  >> True Lewis: Thank you, Carolyn. It's just been an absolute
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  wonderful time, and I appreciate all the effort.
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  And thank you, Alabama. See you soon.
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  >> Carolyn Hutcheson: Uh, joining us from Fort Knox, Kentucky, for our
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  Genealogy in youn Genes series was True Lewis,
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  family historian who is headed to Auburn
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  University next week. Thanks for joining us for In
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  Focus, which is a podcast. Wherever you get your
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  podcast. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is
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  listener supported Troy Public Radio.