Personal Ancestry – My ancestors have failed to convey forward any information about my immigrant ancestor, Moses Culbert/Cuthbert’s, family left behind in Ireland. It is for this reason that I embarked on the Culbert One-Name Study, in the hopes that in my research I would some day find new information about him before he emigrated in 1828. All we know of the time before his emigration is what he stated in his naturalization documents – that he was born in Letterkenny town, County Donegal. So far in my research I have found no Culberts associated with the town of Letterkenny during the 1800s.
Another curiosity about Moses is an unsubstantiated family “story” provided by Anne Culbert Bourne Schulz – that Moses and his brother, James, were known as Culbertsons in Ireland, and that they changed their surnames due to politics upon leavin there. There may be some truth in a surname change, because in my research I have found that Moses was clearly listed as Moses Cuthbert on the ship Asia passenger list in 1828, which sailed from Londonderry to Philadelphia in 1828.
General – There is a growing population of Negro Culberts in the U.S.A., and it seems likely that these folks are descended from slaves who either were born to a white Culbert parent, or assumed the Culbert surname as property of a Culbert. I have found a few records of Culbert slave holders in 1850 and 1860 U.S. census records, but so far it has been impossible to associate any of their slaves to having the Culbert surname. My few attempts to contact black Culberts about why they assumed the Culbert surname have been non-responsive.
