Quick Guide to African American Records

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African American Genealogy Wiki Topics
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Beginning Research
Original Records
Compiled Sources
Background Information
Finding Aids
Powers Bible quilt 1898

Introduction[edit | edit source]

This section describes strategies for discovering African American ancestors in various periods of history:

  • Beginning Your Search
  • Searching Recent Records
  • Searching Transition Records from Slavery to Freedom
  • Searching Records for Enslaved Persons

Most of these records are available through the FamilySearch or other similar websites, such as Ancestry ($) and MyHeritage ($).

Beginning Your Search[edit | edit source]

Gathering Information[edit | edit source]

To begin researching, write down what your family knows about your ancestors. Interview the older generation, including grandparents, aunts, and uncles. The knowledge gained from interviewing these relatives will be beneficial in finding ancestors in the actual records. Record and keep track of names, dates, and places on family group record forms or other such documents.

Research Tips[edit | edit source]

Here are some tips when researching:

  • Search as many kinds of records as you can find to document the lives of your family back to 1870.
  • Study the lives of all family members, including aunts, uncles, and cousins—not just your direct ancestors.
  • Look for changing surnames. Some African Americans changed surnames several times. If you can’t find your family in a census record, but you know the family’s location at the time of the census, look for first names and approximate ages of family members. You may find a match.
  • If your ancestor is not listed in an index, check the original records anyway. Some indexes do not include African Americans.
  • Understand that some old records may have described your ancestor in terms used at the time that are not considered appropriate today.
  • African Americans may be listed in "colored" registers. You may also see the abbreviation "Col" next to your ancestor’s name. This was common practice in many states even after the civil war and emancipation.
  • If your ancestor is not in a "colored" register, try the "white" register. Your ancestor’s race may not have been accurately recorded.

See How Do I Begin? for more information.

Searching Recent Records[edit | edit source]

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

For more instructions on finding African American families in recent U.S. records, see Tracing Your African-American Genealogy.

General United States Records[edit | edit source]

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

You can see more information about these records by clicking on them.

2. Search records from the state where your ancestor lived, including:.

  • Cemetery records
  • City directories
  • Church records
  • Court records
  • Land records
  • Probate records
  • School records
  • Vital records (government records of births, marriages, and deaths)
  • Voting records
These records are described in the Wiki pages for each state.

3. Study the local histories for each town, county, and state where your ancestor lived.

  • Look for information on African American churches, schools, and cemeteries.
  • Learn about local laws that affected your ancestors: Did African Americans vote? Did they have a curfew? Were there laws specifically for African Americans?

4. An excellent guide that carefully explains how to search for your ancestors is: Finding a Place Called Home: An African American Guide to Genealogical and Historical Identity. by Dee Parmer Woodtor, New York, New York, Random House, 1999. FS Catalog book 973 F2wd; At various libraries (WorldCat). This book explains the basic as well as complex research techniques required for African American research. It includes unique sources such as the records of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

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

African American Records[edit | edit source]

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

This bibliography:
  • Has citations for about 3,320 African American sources.
  • Includes Canadian records.
  • Includes records in the collection by 1994. (The FamilySearch Catalog does not list all these records.)
  • Includes articles from historical and genealogical periodicals.
This bibliography has two sections:
  • Search the "Bibliography Arranged by Subject" section for general types of records, such as church, court, slavery and bondage, or vital records.
  • Search the "Bibliography Arranged by Locality" section for records from the U.S. state or Canadian province where your ancestor lived. Each state or province has a subject section, followed by a section for each county.

Note: To download pages or to peruse pages continuously rather than one at a time, select Print Version Part 1 (Alabama - Ohio: Jackson County) or Print Version Part 2 (Ohio: Jackson County - Wisconsin: Milwaukee County and Canada: Alberta - Quebec.) Below Part 1 or Part 2 select Print Version to print or view.

Over the years, African American sources have been cataloged in many different ways at the FamilySearch Library. This Bibliography was created to make the African American genealogical sources easier to locate. For example:

For information about Melungeons, tri-racial families, African Americans with Native American ancestry, and Free People of Color see the Taylor bibliography, pages 54–56.

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

  • Federal censuses, 1790–1860. Any ancestor listed in the federal population schedule was free.
  • Local government registers of Free Persons of Color. Formerly enslaved individuals had to register with the local government to prove their freedom.
  • Local court, land, and probate records. The lives of free African Americans were still closely regulated by law and custom.

Searching Transition Records from Slavery to Freedom[edit | edit source]

For more instructions on finding African American families in records, see Tracing Your African-American Genealogy.

Records of the Underground Railroad[edit | edit source]

Many enslaved persons "stole" themselves and escaped north into Canada and freedom from the Fugitive Slave laws that required their return from northern states. See:

  • FamilySearch Library Bibliography of African American Sources. by Marie Taylor, Salt Lake City: FamilySearch Library, 2000. FS Catalog book 973 F23tm. Look under "Migration" in both the "Subject" and "Locality" sections. (For help see "Note" under the heading, African American Records.)
  • National Underground Railroad Freedom Center at Freedman's Bank Records (accessed 22 Dec. 2011).
  • National Geographic - Kids, "The Underground Railroad" (accessed 1 Jan. 2025).
  • FamilySearch Wiki Article, "African American Migration" will have a number of sources on the Underground Railroad, Fugitive Slave Laws, and the American Colonization Society.

Making the Slavery Connection[edit | edit source]

James Hopkinson's plantation enslaved persons planting sweet potatoes

You must first identify the slaveholder, then study his records for clues to your family. Correctly identifying your ancestor in records of the enslaved can be difficult. Professional researchers are successful only about 50 percent of the time.

Keep in mind that only about 15 percent of formerly enslaved persons took their last slaveholder’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 slaveholder.

Sources for Identifying a Slaveholder[edit | edit source]

Military Records[edit | edit source]

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 slaveholder.

Other useful military records:

  • Buffalo Soldiers (Indian wars)
  • Philippine Insurrection (1898)
  • Spanish-American War (1899–1901)
  • Mexican border disputes (1905–1907)
  • World War I (1917–1918)

For information on the above records, see:

Freedman’s Savings and Trust Records[edit | edit source]


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.

  • Information includes birthplace, place brought up, residence, age, complexion, name of employer or occupation, spouse, children, father, mother, brothers and sisters, remarks, and signature.
  • Early books give the name of the former slaveholder and the name of the plantation.
  • The Freedman's Bank records are part of National Archives Record Group 101, Records of the Comptroller of the Currency. For more information, see: freedman bank records
  • 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.

Freedmen’s Bureau[edit | edit source]

There are two sets in the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned 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.

For a guide to the field office records, see:

Everly, Elaine, and Willna Pacheli. Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Field Offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands: Record Group 105. Washington, D.C.: NARA, 1973. FS Catalog book 973 F23ea pt. 1-3.

The records are divided as follows:

More information on the Freedmen's Bureau is available on the FamilySearch Wiki.

Southern Claims Commission Records[edit | edit source]

United States. House of Representatives. Commissioners of Claims. Records of the Commissioners of Claims 1871–1880. National Archives Microfilm Publications, M0087. Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1945.

  • Nearly 22,300 cases are filed by individuals, family groups, churches, and businesses.
  • Case files include items such as family letters and Bibles, wills, probate records, personal accounts, property inventories, and other genealogical data.
  • These records can help you learn if an ancestor had been enslaved.
  • Records include testimony of neighbors, relatives, and formerly enslaved persons to support a claimant’s assertion that he or she is due repayment for property taken during the Civil War because of loyalty to the Union.

A master index to these case files is:

  • Southern Loyalists in the Civil War: The Southern Claims Commission by Gary B. Mills, Baltimore, Maryland, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1994. FS Library book 975 M2s., This book 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.

American Slave Narratives[edit | edit source]

In the 1930s, the WPA Writers Project compiled over 3,500 typescript interviews of formerly enslaved Americans. Access and indexes are available through:

Apprenticeship and Orphans’ Records[edit | edit source]

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

Another Way of Identifying the Enslaver[edit | edit source]

If the sources listed above do not help you identify an enslaver, try the following technique:

  1. Find your family on the 1870 census.
  2. Make a list of every family with property on the 10 pages before and 10 pages after your ancestor. Add your ancestor’s surname to this list if it is not already there.
  3. Act as if each family name on the list was the name of the former slaveholder. Use the records listed under Search Records of the Enslaved. As you use the records you will start eliminating some names, and others will look more promising.
  4. 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.

Searching Records for Enslaved Persons[edit | edit source]

For more instructions on finding African American families in records, see Tracing Your African-American Genealogy.

When you know the slaveholder’s name you have a list of possibilities:

1. Study the life and records of the slaveholder and his family. Your ancestor’s life was inseparably connected with the slaveholder. Your ancestor will be listed in records of the slaveholder’s property.

2. Look for the slaveholder’s name in:

1850 Slave Schedules[edit | edit source]

1860 Slave Schedules[edit | edit source]

Slave schedules give the age and sex of each enslaved person.

  • The 1850 and 1860 federal census mortality schedules. These give the names of enslaved persons who died and the names of the slaveholders.
  • Tax records. These list enslaved persons and their monetary value.
  • Land and property records. Search for information about deeds, sales, mortgages, or rental transactions of enslaved persons.
  • Probate, estate, and chancery court records. These show the distribution of enslaved persons at the death of a slaveholder.
  • Plantation records. Account logbooks give the names of enslaved persons, family relationships, and their assigned tasks. Some records give the enslaved person's birth and death dates. They also record when an enslaved person was bought, from whom, and for how much.
  • Antebellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1966.

See FamilySearch Library Bibliography of African American Sources for the films and guidebooks 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 slaveholder.

Databases of Names of Enslaved Persons[edit | edit source]

There are various websites where researchers submit names of enslaved persons they have come across in records. Try searching these databases for known enslaved persons or elslavers:

There are several other projects dedicated to specific regions or record types, for example:

Also see 10 Databases for Researching Enslaved Ancestors

Other Enslavers[edit | edit source]

Several large industries owned enslaved persons. See:

Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries. Bethesda, Md.: University Publications of America, 1991. FS Catalog 975 H6s

Native American tribes also enslaved African Americans. See:

  • Native American records. Enslaved persons are often listed as members of the tribe.
  • African-Native American Genealogy Homepage containing African American - Freedmen Records of Oklahoma, Black Families of the Mississippi Choctaw, and Eastern Cherokee Records sites.

Emancipation Timeline[edit | edit source]

Slavery began in 1620 in the colonies. The following are key dates for emancipation:

1777 Vermont is the first colony to abolish slavery.
1780 Pennsylvania passes a gradual emancipation law.
1783 Massachusetts prohibits slavery.
1783 New Hampshire prohibits slavery.
1784 Connecticut bars slavery.
1784 Rhode Island bans slavery.
1790 Boston becomes the first U.S. city without enslaved persons.
1799 New York begins gradual emancipation.
1804 New Jersey begins gradual emancipation.
1807 The U.S. Congress bans the slave trade by prohibiting "the importation of enslaved persons into the United States or the territories thereof" after 1 January 1808.
1863 The Emancipation Proclamation frees only enslaved persons in states in rebellion against the Union.
1865 June 19 - The Emancipation Proclamation was read in Galveston, Texas.
1865 December 6 - The 13th Amendment was passed, abolishing slavery across the entire United States.

Guidebooks and Histories[edit | edit source]

  • A short, step-by-step guide with charts, worksheets, and definitions.
  • Good background information about family life in various parts of the country at different times.
  • Tells about surname customs and how surnames changed.
  • Black Biographical Dictionaries 1790–1950: Cumulative Index, by Randall Burkett. 3 vols. Alexandria, Va.: Chadwyck-Healey, 1991. FS Catalog book 973 F2bbd
  • Indexes 300 African American biographical dictionaries that are available on microfiche
  • Available for a fee on the Internet at:
  • African American Women: a Biographical Dictionary, by Dorothy C. Salem. New York, New York: Garland Pub. Co, 1991. FS Catalog book 973 F26a; At various libraries (WorldCat); Online at: Internet Archive
  • African American National Biography, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Oxford University Press: New York, New York, 2008. FS Catalog book 973 F26aan v. 1-8; At various libraries (WorldCat); This title includes 8 volumes. The 2008 edition contains biographical entries, historical and contemporary, for 4100 African Americans indexed alphabetically, arranged by birthplace and by subject area and realm of renown; as well as a list of African American prizewinners, medalists, members of Congress, and judges.

Tutorials at FamilySearch Learning Center[edit | edit source]

View these lectures online for an in-depth training experience:

Websites[edit | edit source]

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

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Links to African American Research-related articles
Topics
Repositories
Allen County Public Library · FamilySearch Library · Library of Congress · National Archives I · National Archives Regional Branches · National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, John Parker Library · Birmingham Civil Rights Institute · Black Archives of Mid-America · Duke Univeristy Rubenstein Library · FamilySearch Centers · Godfrey Memorial Library · Kalamazoo College Black History Mobile Museum · New England Historic Genealogical Society · Newberry Library · John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at Colonial Williamsburg · Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum · University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries · University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center · University of Pittsburgh Hillman Library
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