They Had Names: Researching the Southern Claims Commission Part 1

Have you wondered how you could make a difference in the genealogy world? Your research may be fairly straightforward or have many challenges. For those researching African American ancestors, the brick wall appears relatively soon – generally prior to 1870. Dealing with the lack of surnames in the antebellum era, forced separation of families, and record loss requires a focused approach and pouring through many record collections. Fortunately, more useful records are becoming available and efforts by volunteers to index these records can make all the difference. In this guest blog post, we learn how two researchers, Stacy Cole and...