The mission of the Cragmont DNA Project is to test the DNA of descendants of people of color who lived in the close-knit Cragmont Community beginning in 1930. Many of the enslaved ancestors of Cragmont residents settled in the Swannanoa Valley after emancipation, as indicated on the 1870 U.S. Census. The Cragmont Community is located in Black Mountain Township of Buncombe County, North Carolina, west of the town of Black Mountain and north of Old US Highway 70.  The area encompasses property on both sides of Cragmont Road running from the intersection of North Fork Road, near the Swannanoa River, to the intersection of West State Street. Cragmont Community included an area defined as “Colored Settlement” and “Colored Town” on the 1930-1940 censuses. On the 1930 U.S. Census for Black Mountain Township, many descendants of freed slaves are identified as living in the "Colored Settlement North of Highway" or in the "Cragmont Road Section."

Surnames for the Cragmont Community may include, but are not limited to: Brown, Burgin, Burnett(e), Cannaday, Carson, Daughtery, Dixon, Durham, Faust, Fortune, Foster, Flack, Gardner, Gragg, Gross, Greenlee, Hardy, Hamilton, Hayden, Hooper, Inabinett, Littlefield, Logan, Long, Lynch, Lytle, Kennedy, Nabors, Moore, Morehead, Rutherford, Simmons, Stepp, Twitty, Weaver, Wells, Williams, Wilson, White, Whiteside, Whittington. 

Family Tree DNA is the only DNA company which offers group projects, authorizing experienced and trained administrators to facilitate the group’s genealogical research.  Project administrators compare and analyze individual DNA kits, down to chromosomes and segments of a chromosome, allowing identification of shared segments to specific ancestors.  Family Tree DNA accepts certain DNA raw data processed by other test labs without the need of retesting. The Cragmont Community DNA Project administrator is Connie Bradshaw, owner of I Dig Your Roots, a genetic genealogy research firm.

*Please note: To join this project, the Family Finder (autosomal) DNA test, either already taken or ordered, is required.

Link to order a Family Finder Test if you have never tested: https://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?group=CragmontCommunity&code=M73347

Link to join Cragmont Community DNA Project if you have already tested with Family Tree DNA (click on link after logging into results page): https://www.familytreedna.com/my/group-join.aspx?act=groupjoin&group=CragmontCommunity

Link to instructions to transfer autosomal DNA test results from another test lab (once results are transferred, use link above to join the project): https://learn.familytreedna.com/imports/transfer-autosomal-ancestry/family-tree-dna-family-finder-transfer-program/

Bios of Project Administrator and Co-Administrators:

Connie Bradshaw (rvsailor@aol.com), owner of I Dig Your Roots, a genetic genealogy research firm, combines the science of DNA testing with traditional genealogical research methodology. A 26-year U.S. Navy Veteran, she is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the International Society of Genetic Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society, and performs all research within their strict ethical code of standards. As the genealogist for the Historic Carson House, located in Marion, North Carolina, Connie has unraveled several complicated Carson family relationships. Her all-embracing manner proved instrumental in coordinating an inclusive reunion that successfully and harmoniously drew black and white Carson descendants together. Using DNA testing to move beyond conventional research, she was able to explain their intertwining Carson kinship.

Focused on education, Connie completed Boston University’s Certificate Program in Genealogical Research in 2012. She provides educational lectures on genetic genealogy for local heritage and genealogy societies, and facilitates a Jacksonville, Florida based DNA Interest Group. Continually engaged in learning new genetic genealogy developments, she encourages DNA testing as a valuable tool for genealogical research, providing answers where oral histories leave off.

Regina Lynch-Hudson (thewritepublicist@earthlink.net), owner of The Write Publicist & Co., is a family history reviver and author of Family Gems: A Pictorial History of Western North Carolina Ancestors. The 418-page coffee table book, published in 2009, gives long overdue homage to five family lineages in Western North Carolina, and features ancestral trees, museum-quality montages, DNA charts and restored black-and-white photographs. She is a nationally published travel writer who has penned articles on historical sites ranging from the Biltmore Estate, where her maternal great-grandfather George Washington Richard Henry Lee Payne reigned as an early estate blacksmith, to coverage of Historic Carson House, a house museum that was a former residence of her paternal great-great-great grandfather Colonel John Carson.  World traveled, her article and accompanying photos of Cairo, Egypt, titled ‘Cairo Unveiled’ won Best Feature Story in 1995, awarded by the Atlanta Association of Media Women. She authored a cultural travel column that ran for a decade in AirTran Airways’ inflight magazine. In 2005, Regina was awarded a DNA Project Sponsorship, which tested ancestral matriarchs such as Bessie Stepp Pertiller and Irene Burnette Perkins.

Over a 30-year period, she has curated rare historical documents and vintage photographs, which she transforms into visionary projects that celebrate her Western North Carolina ancestors. Regina produced an ancestral video series ‘Strength Stems from Struggle’ in collaboration with Swannanoa Valley Museum. Regina also developed collateral to create 7-foot panels for the museum’s permanent ‘Our Pathways’ exhibit ─ depicting written and visual history of the lives of her Cragmont Community ancestors: John Myra Stepp, Mary Louisa Stepp Burnette Hayden, George Winslow Whittington and Winfred William Lynch.

Leslie (Les) Allen Whittington (jfglaw@frontier.com), a native of the Cragmont Community, studied Agriculture at Berea College, where he graduated in 1977.  Berea College, the first integrated, co-educational college in the South, was founded in 1855 by a Presbyterian minister who was an abolitionist. Leslie worked for the U.S. Forest Service before serving his country in the U.S. Navy from 1980-84, and in the Naval Reserves 1984-91. He held various positions with the Juvenile Evaluation Center from 1985-2011. As an avid auction attendee, Les also worked as an “extra” at Penland Tueten Auctions and Wilkerson & Emory Estates and Antiques, sellers of antiques, jewelry, old coins and valuable rare items.

 A passionate collector of an unlikely category of historical memorabilia, Les collects racist objects in an attempt to shed light on his ancestors’ painful struggles.  The upstairs gallery of his Weaverville, NC home is a mini-museum of racist-themed artifacts: “Mammy” and “Tom”figurines, Ku Klux Klan (KKK) objects, postcards, and slave shackles.

The Journal of Appalachian Studies features Les in an article titled ‘Collecting Hate:Confronting Racism through Contemptible Collectibles’ [Vol. 26, No. 2 (Fall 2020), pp. 227-247] published by University of Illinois Press. 

He is the grandson of former slave-turned-prominent-landholder, John Myra Stepp, one of Black Mountain’s most inspiring founding fathers.