John Kersey, great grandfather of Pastor Thermon Kersey Ill, came to Ypsilanti from Canada around 1881. Although the family was free, they had moved from Georgia to Indiana to escape from slave hunters who didn't always bother to differentiate free Blacks from escaped slaves. After the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was enacted, they were in even more danger, so the family; including the father, Ephriam Kersey, and his son, Elisha Kersey, moved to Canada. His descendants are not sure if he traveled as a free African American or used the Underground Railroad.