Twin identification in slave indexes proves two Rentys were father and son

Evidence

It is important to note that Eve was listed in the “Little Boy Renty” document with her twin brother, Adam. It is also important to note that in the slaveholder’s own words, Eve and a man named July are brother and sister. With this piece of factual information, I am able to definitively point to a kinship between the two Renty family groupings in the Colonel Thomas Taylor slave index of 1834. This confirms that the “Big Renty” is Papa Renty and the second Renty is his son and the father of Renty Taylor Thompson. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1162

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows how slaveholder documents list enslaved people only by first name, forcing genealogists to connect kin through accident of detail (twin Adam, sibling July).