The Rollins were preparing for a trip to a museum in Kentucy. As they were finished eating one night, his grandmother said, "Don't be surprised if there is a photo of a relative on the wall."

When they asked her what she meant, she would not say anymore.

The Rollins dug out their old family tree records and tried to find a connection. They found out that Gary was related to Billy the Barber, a Haitian man who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and his barber.

"None of this was known to us at all, and my grandmother, my mother and my great-grandmother kept it from us," Rollins said. "This is not a story about race. This is about losing a family because of prejudices."

On the same branch of the family tree is Billy the Barber, they found a great-great uncle George Richardson who was wrongly accused of raping a white woman in one of the incidents that started the Springfield Race Riot.

"That race riot was the stimulus for the NAACP which started a year later in New York City," Rollins said.

Thanks to services like people search, the Rollins were able to get a phone number and address for their long-lost side of the family. After getting an address and phone number, they first called his cousin Norman Willis, 86, and his wife Irene over the phone.

This entire experience has taught the Rollins family the importance of finding lost family members.

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