DNA Testing May Prove Tulsa Victims Of 1921 Race Massacre Have Ties To Texas Families

Genealogists in Oklahoma say some Texas families are related to victims of the 1921 Race Massacre and are looking to compare their DNA

Victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre may have ties to Texas families, according to a report from Fox 26. Genealogists in Oklahoma are looking for Texas families with the last name of Bremby (also spelled Brimbry, Bembry, and Brembry ) located in Sealy and Austin County; Traylor family members in Bowie County; and the Davis family in Kaufman, Texas.

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is summarized on Intermountain Forensics’s website: “On June 1, 1921, it is estimated that hundreds of Black residents and businesspersons in the Greenwood District of Tulsa were slain in one of the worst single-incident acts of racial violence in United States history. More than 1,200 homes were burned, and nearly all of the businesses in the thriving “Black Wall Street” were destroyed.”

According to Alison Wilde, genealogy case manager for the Tulsa Race Massacre Mass Graves Project, “Being able to provide any information to the community on the Tulsa race massacre, the victims, about the events of 1921 is such an important task.” Wilde also indicated that many people in the Greenwood area, which contained Black Wall Street, actually hailed from Texas, saying, “You’ll see a great number of them, a very high percentage were born in the state of Texas.”

In 2021, Tulsa decided to start excavating and searching for the remains of those killed during the massacre. In the two years since, they have found several unmarked graves of those they believe are victims and have been searching for ways to notify and also connect with those families.

Wilde told Fox 26, “The response from Texas has been fantastic, and if we could get the same response from Brimby and Trailor family, that would be awesome.”

Wilde encourages anyone who believes they may be connected to the families killed during the race massacre in Tulsa to get a DNA test and submit it to GEDMatch so it can be compared to victim samples that the organization has in its records.