Home/Our Story

Where We Come From

Our Story

Our roots run deep, our love runs deeper.

Six generations of choice, resilience, and love — traced from the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Fon of Dahomey, through emancipation and the road to Texas, to the brickyards of Elgin and to every Collins alive today.

150+Years documented
6Generations
485+Family members
01

The Narrative

A Family That Endured

Not a story of what was done to us — a story of what our people chose, built, and kept alive. This is the root, and everything that follows grows from it.

"They did not stop being themselves." The thread that runs through six generations

i

It Begins in Africa

Our family's story begins not as a beginning of loss, but as a beginning of belonging. The DNA we carry connects us to the sophisticated civilizations of West and Central Africa — to the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria, who built complex city-states and enduring artistic traditions; to the Fon of the Kingdom of Dahomey, with their own systems of governance and faith; to the Bamana of Mali, keepers of the Niger River; and to the Bantu, Tikar, and Bamileke peoples of Congo, Angola, and Cameroon.

This is who we are, before any other story. This is the root.

ii

The Middle Passage & What Came After

Our ancestors were forcibly carried across the Atlantic through the transatlantic slave trade. This happened, and we do not look away from it. But here is what matters most: they did not stop being themselves.

In the Deep South, enslaved members of our family — people like Frank Collins, born around 1850 in the final years of slavery — kept alive their humanity, their faith, and their bonds. They remembered. They sang and prayed. They loved their children fiercely. They told stories, they planned, and they waited for their moment. They endured — which is to say they survived, they kept their dignity, and they kept the family's thread unbroken.

iii

The Choice to Move

On Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, word of emancipation reached Texas. Freedom was not handed down as a gift — it was claimed by people who had earned it through centuries of resilience and refusal to be broken.

What happened next is the part we celebrate: our family made a choice. They chose to move. They chose Texas. They chose Elgin. Willie Mack Collins established the family in Texas; his son Rufus A. Collins built on that foundation; and Rufus's son Virges Lee Collins Sr., with Willie Pearl Jackson Collins, made their home in Elgin and raised nine children.

iv

Building Elgin

Our ancestors did not merely survive in Elgin — they built it. Virges Lee Collins worked the town's brick industry, skilled labor demanding strength, precision, and knowledge. The bricks made by Black workers like him supplied the University of Texas, the State Capitol, and structures as far as the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. Elgin became the "Brick Capital of the Southwest," and our family helped create that legacy.

More importantly, they built community. At Lakeview Baptist Church they worshiped, baptized their children, and taught them to read, to pray, and to remember where they came from — weaving a net of kinship and mutual support that holds to this day.

v

The Unbroken Chain

From Virges Lee and Willie Pearl came nine children. From those nine came dozens of grandchildren, and from them hundreds of great-grandchildren spread across America. Today, 485+ family members carry the Collins name and the Collins legacy.

This is what endurance looks like — not merely survival, but thriving; not only individual success, but family.

vi

Sankofa — Go Back & Fetch It

The Akan principle of Sankofa teaches us to go back and fetch what was lost — to reconcile with a complicated ancestry, to honor what the slave trade tried to erase, and to reclaim our lineage and our bonds. This genealogy is an act of Sankofa. We are going back to fetch the names and the lives of our ancestors: Frank. Willie Mack. Rufus. Virges Lee. Willie Pearl. And those whose names we have not yet recovered.

You were here. You mattered. Your love created us. Your choices shaped us. We remember.

02

The Journey

From a Homeland to a Hometown

A path measured in generations and miles — from West Africa, through the Deep South, to a town our family helped build.

🌍
Before the 1800s

West & Central Africa

The Yoruba, Fon, Bamana, and Bantu peoples in their homelands — cities, faith, craft, and kinship across what is now Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Congo & Cameroon.

⛓
1800 – 1850s

The Crossing

Forced migration through the transatlantic slave trade, with many from the Bight of Benin first carried through the Caribbean before the American mainland.

🕊
~1850 – 1865

The Deep South

Frank Collins is born around 1850 in the last years of slavery — the earliest ancestor we have named — as our family is held across the cotton South.

✊
June 19, 1865

Juneteenth & Freedom

Emancipation reaches Texas. In the years that follow, freed families build hundreds of their own communities across Central Texas.

🚂
1874 – 1920

The Road to Texas

Willie Mack Collins (b. 1874) migrates west — the family's DNA journey points back through the Carolinas and the lower South toward Louisiana, settling at last in Bastrop & Lee County, Texas, in and around Elgin.

🧱
1896 – 1967

The Brick Years in Elgin

Rufus A. Collins (1896–1971) and his son Virges Lee Collins Sr. (1920–1967) raise their families in Elgin, Texas. Virges Lee works the brick belt and worships at Lakeview Baptist; he and Willie Pearl Jackson Collins raise nine children.

🌳
1960 – Today

485+ & Growing

From nine children, a family that now numbers 485+ members across America — gathering each reunion to carry the legacy of resilience and pride forward.

03

The Line

Our Documented Lineage

The confirmed paternal line, generation by generation. It is at Virges Lee and Willie Pearl that the family widens — their nine children are the branch point for nearly all of us today.

Frank Collins b. ~1850
The earliest ancestor we have named. Born in the final years of slavery; parents not yet identified.
● Research ongoing
Willie Mack Collins 1874 – 1926
Established the family in Texas. Married Mary Garnett.
● Research ongoing
Rufus A. Collins 1896 – 1971
Built on the family's Texas foundation. Married Mary Smith.
● Research ongoing
Virges Lee Collins Sr. & Willie Pearl Jackson Collins 1920 – 1967
Made their home in Elgin, Texas. Virges Lee worked the brick industry and worshiped at Lakeview Baptist Church. Together they raised nine children — the generation from which the family widens.
◆ Corroborated by family records

Your branch begins here

Nearly all 485+ of us descend from the nine children of Virges Lee & Willie Pearl. If you trace back to one of their children, this is where your branch joins the documented line — and we'd love to record it.

Add your branch →
04

In Our Blood

African Origins

DNA tells us the regions our ancestors most likely came from. These are estimates, not exact addresses — but together they point home, to the Bight of Benin and beyond.

Nigeria Yoruba28%
Benin & Togo Fon / Dahomey24%
Western Bantu Congo & Angola10%
Mali Bamana / Mande9%
Cameroon Tikar / Bamileke7%
Other African & European22%

The Bight of Benin, primarily

More than half of our origin points to the Bight of Benin — the homeland of the Yoruba and the Fon. For generations the Yoruba were shielded by the powerful Oyo Empire; when it fell in the early 1800s, war and raiding carried hundreds of thousands through the port of Ouidah.

The Mande signature from Mali and the Bantu and Grassfields signature from Congo, Angola, and Cameroon point to ancestors taken from many nations — each carrying language, faith, music, and strength across the water.

Ancestral journeys in the record:

  • Early North Carolina African Americans
  • East Texas, Lee, Fayette & Bastrop County African Americans
05

The Evidence

The Record

An honest accounting of what we've confirmed and what we're still searching for. Every generation listed here is a name reclaimed.

● Documented ◆ Corroborated ● Research ongoing
AncestorYearsPlaceStatus
Frank Collins b. ~1850 Deep South (TBD) Research
Willie Mack Collins 1874 – 1926 Texas Research
Rufus A. Collins 1896 – 1971 Texas Research
Virges Lee Collins Sr. 1920 – 1967 Elgin, TX Corroborated
Willie Pearl Jackson Collins — Elgin, TX Corroborated

What we've confirmed

  • Elgin, the "Brick Capital of the Southwest." Brickyards operating from the 1880s onward supplied UT Austin, the Texas Capitol, and beyond.
  • Forced migration is documented. An estimated 140,000 enslaved people were carried out of North Carolina toward the South between 1810 and 1860 — matching our DNA journey.
  • Virges Lee & Willie Pearl, with nine children. Corroborated through family records and the Carl Wayne Collins obituary (Elgin Funeral Home).

Help Us Remember

Every family keeps a piece of the story.

A photograph, an obituary, a Bible page, a name an elder remembers — small things complete the record. If you have something to share, the family would be grateful for it.

Share what you have → ← Back to the reunion