Beginning African American Research: Difference between revisions

#List the most important internet sites for U.S census indexes and images is the Research Wiki at wiki.familysearch.org under the topic [You Name It State] Census which links to:

To learn more, search these topics in the Research Wiki at wiki.familysearch.org: 1. Social Security Death Index for ancestors who died after 1962 2. WWI Draft Registration Cards 1917-1918 for men born 1873 to 1900 3. Freedman's Savings And Trust 1864-1871 bank 4. U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) in the civil war soldiers and sailors system 1861-1865 5. Records Of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations pre-1861 6. Slaves in wills (Probate Records), deeds (Land and Property), tax records (Taxation) 7. Registers of free blacks and registers of slaves in upper south and border states 8. Freedmen’s Bureau – marriages, labor records, food, health care, lynching records 1864-72 9. Slave Narratives 3,500 typescript interviews of former slaves made in 1930s, well indexed 10. Southern Claims Commission (advanced source) 1871-73 based on civil war claims 11. Runaway slave advertisements – spotty coverage, hard to find a particular ancestor  

1. Learn some of the other sources available for African American research from the Research Wiki: wiki.familysearch.org/en/African_American_Research 2. Principle: Search for ethnic groups like African Americans first in the same sources you would for anyone else. 3. African Americans can appear in either “white” or separate “colored” registers. 4. African American names change, especially from 1865 to 1875—how to find them anyway. 5. What to do when an ancestor is not in an index when they should be there A. Try a different spelling B. Try a different index of the same source (for censuses) C. Ignore the index and go through the source line-by-line looking for your ancestor.  

1. What the end product of good genealogical research will be. A. Well-documented family group records reaching back in time as far as possible. B. Research logs documenting the research process used to compile the family groups. C. Sharing your genealogy is one of the best ways to find ancestors. 2. Expect to find ancestors names spelled in unexpected (wrong) ways. Guess variations. 3. How to guess where to start research. The more you know, the better you can guess. A. How to guess places—use the other places as a guide. B. How to guess dates 1. Births: oldest child 1 year after parent's marriage, 2 years space between children 2. Marriages: 1 yr before 1st child, 25 yrs after groom's birth, 21 yrs after bride's birth 3. Deaths: about the same age as siblings C. Look for one event at a time in one person’s life. D. Work from the easiest-to-document event to the hardest-to-document event on a family group record. The easiest to document is the most recent event that is on the family group with a specific date, place, and source cited. Consider what is exact, partial, or missing. The hardest to document is the earliest possible event not mentioned on the family group and lacking a full date, place, or source citation (all of which you will have to guess). 4. Thoroughly search a full nuclear family in community context one event-person at a time A. Extract full information on people in the area with the same surname. B. Extract full info on people by another surname living in same household. C. Identify census neighbors, at least 12 before/after. Note who owned land. D. If near a state or county line, study people with the same surname in nearby areas. E. Comb the neighborhood for families with similar naming patterns, origins, or occupations. 5. What to do when you don't find it (the event-person sought) on the first search. A. Write "nil" on your research log. B. Keep the same event-person as a research goal and try switching one of the following: 1. Switch spelling of the name (or skipping the index and looking page by page) 2. Switch record (different edition or different author) - Switch record type (use a Record Selection Table to find substitutes) - Switch jurisdiction (up, down, or sideways) - Switch repository - Switch to kin and associates 6. What to do when you do find it. Organize and document AS YOU GO! A. Photocopy the new source document. B. Identify the source (footnote information) on the front of the photocopy. C. Write your own document filing number on the back of each photocopy. D. Log the new document number, and summarize the events/people you found on all appropriate logs. E. Transfer new family data from the source to appropriate family group records. (sometimes need to add a custom event in PAF). F. Enter new source footnotes for every piece of data on a source, even if that event already has a note. G. Add a preliminary assessment of the data and its reliability to the end of each source footnote. H. Print the updated family group record. I. File the new family group and photocopy. 7. How to get a good education about genealogical research. A. The FamilySearch community is great! Wiki - https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/African_American_Research#Key_Internet_Links - Category:Beginners https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Category:Beginners B. Other reading, classes, travel to ancestral homes. HOMEWORK 1. Contact your oldest living relatives and ask them for information and to see old family papers. 2. Transfer information about your family to well-documented family group records using as a guide the Wiki article Family group record: roadmap for researchers at wiki.familysearch.org/en/Family_group_record:_roadmap_for_researchers 3. Find each of your ancestors, and their siblings on each census from 1870 to 1930, and earlier if possible. Add each census you find to the appropriate family group record. 4. Continue your genealogical education by reading, attending classes, and traveling. Glance through the African American Research Wiki articles listed below.