You are here
Ellen Hemings Roberts

Ellen Wayles Hemings Roberts

Ellen Wayles Hemings Roberts


Ellen and A. J. Roberts at their Los Angeles home

Ellen and A. J. Roberts at their Los Angeles home
African American Museum & Library at Oakland


Ellen Hemings Roberts

Ellen Hemings Roberts


Ellen Hemings Roberts with son William G. Roberts (left) and son-in-law Ivan Saunders

Ellen Hemings Roberts with son William G. Roberts (left) and son-in-law Ivan Saunders



From left to right: Patricia Roberts, Ellen Hemings Roberts, Pearl Roberts and Gloria Roberts

Ellen Wayles Hemings, the youngest child of Madison and Mary Hemings, married her next-door neighbor Andrew Jackson Roberts in 1878. In 1887 they left southern Ohio for Los Angeles, a city in the midst of a land boom. Less than three percent of its population was African American. A. J. Roberts first engaged in the hauling business and later established the first black-owned mortuary in Los Angeles. Both Robertses were active members of the Baptist church.
Ellen and A. J. Roberts’s sons, Frederick Madison Roberts, a member of the California assembly, and William Giles Roberts, joined the family undertaking firm, as did Ivan Saunders, husband of their daughter Myrtle Estelle Roberts. Her grandchildren revered Ellen Hemings Roberts, who they remember as tall, fair-skinned, and blue-eyed, “very aristocratic” and quiet, but with a sharp wit. They never heard her talk about her life in Ohio or her connection to Thomas Jefferson.
- Elizabeth Hemings 1735–1807
John Wayles 1715–1773 - Sally Hemings 1773–1835
- Madison Hemings 1805–1877
- Ellen Hemings Roberts 1856–1940
- Andrew Jackson Roberts husband
- Frederick Madison Roberts son
- Lucille Balthazar granddaughter
- Gloria Roberts granddaughter
- Patricia Roberts granddaughter