Tracing Your African American Heritage  TOP^

For many African Americans, tracking down ancestors can present a unique set of challenges—few cultural groups face as many obstacles when it comes to family history research. Often, a lack of credible documentation can make the journey both difficult and time-consuming. Fortunately, a vast collection of resource materials are now available and locating key information and records can often be done online at home or at your local library. As with any family history research, it all comes down to a question of persistence, know-how, and even a little luck.

To get started, it’s best to begin with what you know—specifically about yourself. How far back would you guess your American family goes? What is the cultural significance of your surname? Was the name ever changed in recent memory? What do you know about your parents and grandparents? To answer these questions, you can look for family heirlooms and journals or even chat with relatives. Then, you can decide how far back you want to research—to an immigrant ancestor, a possible slave owner, or you might want to extend your history back to Africa. Then look for solid documentation and records and you’re on the path to discovering your heritage.

Types of Records  TOP^
Ancestry.com has a variety of African American-specific records that are interspersed throughout all the record collections. This section gives examples of the types of records you might find:

Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874
Shortly after the Civil War, in March 1865, several New York business men started the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, or Freedman’s Bank—a savings bank where soldiers and former slaves could invest their money. This database is an index to Freedman's Savings and Trust Company's registers of signatures of depositors. These records show depositors’ names and sometimes other personal information such as age, place of birth, and occupation.

View a Freedman’s Bank record

Slave Schedules, 1850 and 1860
Slaves were counted separately during the 1850 and 1860 U.S. censuses. In most schedules, the names of owners were recorded; individual slaves were not named but were simply numbered and can be distinguished only by age, sex, and color. The slave schedules also included information on whether a slave was a fugitive from the state (meaning the slave had fled and not returned); the number manumitted (or freed slaves); and whether a slave was deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic. The slave schedule was used in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.

View a slave schedule for Talladega, Alabama

Slave Narratives
The Slave Narrative database contains over 20,000 pages of interviews with more than 3,500 former slaves; the interviews were collected over a ten-year period from 1929 to 1939. The interviews, written exactly as they were dictated, mention tens of thousands of people. The narratives are a rare information bank of history, culture, and folklore—offering everything from ghost stories to songs and hymns. Many of the narratives are also very rich in family history data, often identifying ages, places of residence and birth, and names of spouses, children, siblings, and parents. This database provides a poignant picture of what it was like to live as a slave in the American South.

Read excerpts from slave narratives

1870 U.S. Federal Census
The 1870 census is the first U.S. federal census to list formerly enslaved African Americans by name (in previous censuses they were included only as tally marks on a page). In addition, census takers were presented with printed instructions, which accounts for the greater degree of accuracy in this census as compared to earlier censuses.

Enumerators were asked to include the following categories in the census: name; age at last birthday (if a child was under one year of age, months of age were to be stated as fractions, such as 1/12); sex; color; profession; occupation or trade of every male and female; value of real estate; place of birth; whether mother and father were of foreign birth; whether born or married within the year and the month; those who could not read; those who could not write; whether deaf, dumb, blind, or insane or "idiotic".

Civil War Service Records
The Civil War Compiled Military Service Records are part of a historic effort to compile and link all available records of soldiers serving in individual states during the Civil War. This database is a listing of more than 5.3 million men who served in the war. These records include the information that the government keeps on any soldier (for example, enlistment/appointment, duty stations and assignments, training, qualifications, performance, awards and medals, disciplinary actions, insurance, emergency data, administrative remarks, separation, discharge, retirement, and other personnel actions).

WWI Draft Registration Cards
In 1917 and 1918, approximately 24 million men living in the United States completed a World War I draft registration card. These registration cards represent approximately 98% of the men under the age of 46. The total U.S. population in 1917-1918 was about 100 million individuals. In other words, close to 25% of the total population is represented in these records.

The WWI draft registration cards database can be an extremely useful resource because it covers a significant portion of the U.S. male population in the early twentieth-century. If you had family in the United States during WWI, you are likely to find at least one relative’s information within this large collection. In addition, these cards contain more than just names and dates; they contain significant genealogical information such as birthplace, citizenship status, and information on the individual’s nearest relative.

If a person was of African descent, the bottom left corner was cut off of the registration card to make that distinction.

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820 (Slave)
This database is a compilation of information on over 100,000 slaves who came to Louisiana between 1718 and 1820. It includes personal information such as their name, gender, race, birthplace, family relationships, and also information relating to the individual's skill or trade, and personality.

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820 (Free)
This database contains information on over four thousand slaves from Louisiana who were involved in manumission (the formal emancipation from slavery) between 1718 and 1820. It includes information about how the person was freed and personal information such as age, gender, and birthplace.

Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina Black Deaths 1871-89
This database includes information about African Americans who died in Charleston, South Carolina from 1871 to 1889—the list does not contain information about every African American who died during this time period. It includes first and last names, and death dates.

Family and Local Histories
Family and local histories provide personal details you won't find in more technical and succinct records. The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives. Here are a few you might find:

The First African Baptist Church of North America

The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800

Blacks in the State of Oregon, 1788-1971

Slave Life in Georgia: A narrative of the life, sufferings, and escape of John Brown, a fugitive slave

Slavery Petitions and Papers

• Many African Americans descended from people who lived in central and eastern Africa. Of particular importance was the 300-mile stretch of land in East Africa between the Congo and Gambia Rivers.
• At least one out of every ten African Americans (more than 200,000 in the North and another 200,000 in the South) were free when the American Civil War broke out in 1861.
• Blacks have fought in every war that the United States has waged—from the American Revolution to the Civil War, World War I and II, to today’s conflicts.
• Since the end of World War II, a significant number of people of African ancestry have emigrated from the Caribbean to the U.S., where their ancestors were also slaves (primarily at the hands of the British, Dutch, and French).
• African Americans legally became United States citizens when the fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868.
• On February 25, 1870, the first African American U.S. senator, Hiram R. Revels, took his oath of office.