| United States > African American Research 
 African American Genealogy
|  |   African American counties in dark purple. |  Did you know?The first Africans in the U.S. were sold as indentured servants in Jamestown, Va., in 1619 (before the Piligrims 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 LinksExtinct or Renamed Counties: Charles (old) | Durham | Patuxent | Worcester (old) 
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