Looking for my ancestor's?

Question:

Looking for my ancestor's?

and I wanted to know under the race section they have the usual, black, white, hispanic, but what is mulatto

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If you look at the answers the top 3 - 5 answerers have given over the past few weeks, you'll find lots of good tips.

In the bad old days, when people were granted or denied things (like the right to vote, or move or learn to read) on the basis of their race, the law had to have specific definitions, so,

Mulatto = 1/2 black
Quadroon = 1/4 black
Octroon = 1/8th black

Note there wasn't a name for someone who was 5/16ths or 17/32nds black.

"Mulatto" became a sort of catch-all phrase for people of mixed race, and mixed enough it showed. If someone could pass for white before 1950, they usually did.