African American Research

African American Genealogy Wiki Topics
Beginning Research
Introduction Research Steps	Record Finder Search Strategies
Original Records
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Background Information
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United States    African_American_Research

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Welcome to the African American Research page

Its most unique genealogical features: many family name changes after Civil War slavery research is usually challenging Freedman's Bank & Freedmen's Bureau

African American Genealogy

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Did you know?

• The first African settlers in the U.S. were indentured servants in Jamestown, Va., in 1619 (before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock) and freed after 7 years.
• African American is the most common ancestry in: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
• The Freedman's Bank and the Freedmen's Bureau were separate organizations, from different federal departments, in separate National Archives record groups.
• Ten percent of the African American population was free before the Civil War.
• Only 15 percent of freed slaves used the family name of a former owner.
• From 1865 to 1875 many African Americans changed their family name.

Key Internet Links

African American Quick Guide pdf Finding African Americans 1870-Present 1870 United States Census Family History Library Bibliography of African-American Sources Freedman Bank Records 1865-1874 Freedmen’s Bureau Virginia Marriages 1815-1866 Freedmen's Bureau Field Offices 1865-1872 Southern Claims Commission African-American Migration Experience North American Slave Narratives African-American Resources at FamilySearch Forums Resting Places of United States Colored Troops, Officers and Sailors African American Cemeteries Online American Memory - Slaves and the Courts 1740-1860 African American Genealogical Society of Northern California Digital Library on American Slavery The Menare Foundation Restoring the Ancestors Indexing Project:  SC Estate Inventories

Access Genealogy: African American Genealogy Civil War Soldiers and Sailors World War I Draft Registration National Archives African American Research Genealogy.com African American Institute of African American Research African American Research Library and Cultural Center African Ancestored Genealogy Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyages Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture African American Gateway The USF Africana Heritage Project Slaveholders and African Americans 1860-1870 Free African Americans of VA, NC, SC, MD, DE American Slave Narratives Africans in the Low Country AfriGeneas Africana Heritage Project Avoid Traps in African American Genealogy, Tony Burroughs

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