Quick Guide to African American Records: Difference between revisions

''[[United States|United States]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[African American Research|African American Research]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[Quick_Guide_to_African_American_Records|Search Stategies]]''  

:*Beginning Your Search  

*The most useful records and indexes to search.

*Specific information you need to trace your African American ancestors.

:*Write down what your family knows about your ancestors.  

|}

Start with the most recent generations. Look at general federal and state records and then look at records specifically for African Americans.  

For step-by-step instructions for finding African American families in recent U.S. records, see ''Finding Records of Your Ancestors, Part A: African American, 1870 to Present.''  

1. Search United States records, as described in the [[United States]] Wiki page such as:  

2. Search records from the [[United States#States|state]] where your ancestor lived.  

:*City directories  

:*Court records  

:*Land records  

5. Join an African American Genealogical Society in your area or the area where your ancestors lived.  

African American records at the Family History Library are listed in the bibliography below. Look for records from the place and time your ancestor lived.  

:*Burkett, Randall. ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/23047573 Black Biographical Dictionaries 1790–1950: Cumulative Index]''

The following records can help you determine if an ancestor was born free or freed by a slave owner.  

:*Local court, land, and probate records. The lives of free African Americans were still closely regulated by law and custom.

Many slaves "stole" themselves and escaped north into Canada and freedom from the fugitive slave laws that required their return from northern states. See:  

*See the tutorial at FamilySearch Learning Center on the [https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/lesson/national-underground-railroad-activities-and-accomplishments/147 "National Underground Railroad: Activities and Accomplishments"]

You must first identify the slave owner, and then study the owner’s records for clues to your family. Correctly identifying your ancestor in slave records is difficult. Even professional researchers are successful only about 50 percent of the time.  

Keep in mind that only about 15 percent of former slaves took their last slave owner’s surname. Some took the surname of people they admired, such as Lincoln or Washington, and some took a surname they had been using for many years without the knowledge of the slave owner.  

[[United States Colored Troops in the Civil War|United States Colored Troops (USCT) in Civil War service]] and pension records. These records list the date and place of birth of the soldier and may name the last slave owner.  

:*Wiki [[United States#States|Pages for the states]] where your ancestors lived.

Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0816. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1969. {{FHL| 0928571}}  

:*Note: Do not confuse records of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company with records of the Freedmen's Bureau listed below. When the trust company closed, the Freedmen’s Bureau tried to recover the money. Freedmen’s Bureau records are part of National Archives Record Group 105.

There are two sets in Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen's and Abandond Land (Freedmen’s Bureau) collection: commissioner’s records and field office records. The field office records are the most useful, but can be searched only at the National Archives.  

More information on the [[United States Freedmen’s Bureau Letters (FamilySearch Historical Records)|Freedmen's Bureau]] is available at the wiki.  

United States. House of Representatives. Commissioners of Claims. Records of the [[Southern Claims Commission|Commissioners of Claims ]]1871–1880. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0087. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1945. {{FHL| 1463963}}  

Mills, Gary B. Southern Loyalists in the Civil War: The Southern Claims Commission. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing, 1994. {{FHL| 975 M2s}} Gives the name of the claimant, his or her county and state, the commission number, office and report numbers, and the year and status of the claim.  

In the 1930s the WPA Writers Project compiled over 3,500 typescript interviews of former American slaves. Access and indexes are available through:  

:*University of North Carolina's free site ''[http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ North American Slave Narratives]''.

See both Freedmen’s Bureau and county court records for information on guardianship and apprentices. Former slave owners often became the legal guardians of infants and small children. Orphans old enough to work were also apprenticed to the former slave owner.  

If the sources listed above do not help you identify a slave owner, try the following technique:  

#If you don’t find a match, try to find out if the family moved from a different location. If so, repeat this process as you check the census records for the other location.

When you know the slave owner’s name or if you have a list of possibilities:  

See Family History Library Bibliography of African American Sources for the films and guide books for this collection. Whenever possible, these records are listed under the county or state where the plantation was located. They are then listed alphabetically by the name of the slave owner.  

Several large industries owned slaves. See:  

1865 Last slaves in America freed on 19 June.  

=== Guidebooks and Histories  ===

=== Internet Sites  ===

*[http://tinyurl.com/yzmenle African American History: A research guide to primary and secondary sources for African American history]  

*[http://www.africanamericancemeteries.com/ African American Cemeteries Online]  

*University of North Carolina - Greensboro's [http://library.uncg.edu/slavery/pSearch.aspx?s=2 Digital Library on American Slavery] has digitized details about American slaves from thousands of court and legislative petitions filed between 1775 and 1867 in 15 different states.  Search by name, search by petition or browse subjects.

[[Category:African_Americans]] [[Category:Melungeons]] [[Category:Ethnic,_Political,_or_Religious_Groups]]