I do not know if we are related, I am not African American, but my family did come out of the deep south. I have a direct ancestor that fought in the American revolution and was given a largo grant of land in one of the corallines for his service to the country, some of my family did own negro slaves. I am not aware that we ever fathered children from any of our slaves but people being what people are I cant say that such a thing never happened. we fought on the side of the south during the civil war. My grand mother was Ann Elisabeth Kroute Goodson from Mississippi and my grandfather was Albert James Goodson from Louisiana, My Fathered was C. Edward Goodson born in Gillmor Texas and raised in phoenix Arizona. another family name we have that comes out of the south is Bell I don't know any of them. The Goodson's come from the isle of man in the Irish sea, they where Vikings, from what I know first hand about the Goodson's there good people that would go out of there way to help you but don't cross then, there fighting fools that stick together and they do not, will not, never did back down, they can be as mean as hell. so watch your step. My wife divorced me eight years ago and as a consequences at the present time I don't know where my book of remembrance is but there is genealogy research that is done on our family line. most of the family are still in the deep south as far as I know, there mostly southern Baptist as far as I know, my grand parents joined the LDS faith over 100 years ago now and at the time the family treated us as if we where dead. But there are a number of us now we believe in searching for our dead and many of us contribute to this research. If you go onto LDS.org and then go to family search you will find the work, it might help you find where and how we connect. from the stories In have herd the Goodson's come from two brothers that came to America, one ended up in the deep south and one ended up in Missouri, I come from the line that ended up in the deep south there are some of my kids now living in Idaho but for the most part the Idaho Goodson's come from Missouri at least that is what I have herd. and the Mark Goodson Bill Todman from holly wood is not a Goodson. His family where jaws that got tired of no one being able to pronouns his name, he had a friend with the name of Goodson so he adopted the name, at least that is what he told my ant ruby Goodson Hyde when she looked him up to see if we might be related. the Goodson's in Colorado are my cousins the Goodson's in Utah are probably my brothers kids and one of my sons. I hope this info will help you in your search. until you know where you come from you don't really know who you are.