300 sites and what an interesting surname it is!

After starting out as a pilot project in 2015 the Members’ Websites team is proud to announce the 300th site to go live, https://nickens.one-name.net/. Follow the fascinating research of Janice Nickens Valdez who discovered that the Nickens families of today are comprised of a mixture of black and white people who share a common origin.

As Janice explains:

“In 2010 there were about 3,246 individuals with the surname Nickens counted in the US Federal census. Given that about 43 percent are white and 46 percent are black, this might suggest two different origins of these families. The surprising thing is that most of them actually share a common origin. And contrary to the stories of black families taking names of white slave owners, we have a story of white families descending from free people of color.”