Knowing from where you came gives you guidance for where you are going. I don't know which country or tribe from which our families originated, but slavery is not where our history begins. Slaves were usually not named but enumerated separately and usually only numbered under the slave holder's name. So, a surname only identified the enslaved individual's owner names. Slaves were not permitted to legally marry, but they often formed unions and lived together as couples. These relationships were labeled as "cohabitation" rather than marriage. In the context of enslaved families, the term "inferred child" might refer to children born to enslaved parents who were not legally married but lived together as a family unit. These children were often considered part of the household, even though they may have been separated from their biological parents. After the importation of slaves was made illegal, Plantation owners started to breed and sell children as slave labor. tracing the family roots of individuals before 1865 was extremely difficult.