When working on an African American research project, what resources can help you? Genealogy research in the 21st century certainly has its perks and one of those is an abundance of material to guide us. Although online resources abound, sometimes, a book that can be digested in small chunks provides the best learning experience. Here are titles from my bookshelf. General Reference Books Finding A Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity by Dee Parmer Woodtor Although Woodtor wrote Finding A Place Called Home in the pre-internet era, the methodology for African American research remains the same....
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the Record Linking Lab (RLL) at Brigham Young University. Professor Joseph P. Price talks with us about how his background in economics and interest in his personal family history led to the creation of the RLL. By using machine learning and making connections across data, the RLL hopes to provide better family history experiences for others whether they are using FamilySearch’s Family Tree or visiting a museum. We discuss several of the RLL’s projects, including the Census Tree, African-American Families, Automated Indexing, and Families of the 1918 Pandemic. Links Joseph P....
In Part 1 of this series, we learned how two volunteers are making a difference for anyone researching their African American ancestors in Liberty County, Georgia. Together they have documented almost 30,000 names of enslaved people using all available records. By transcribing the Southern Claims Commission Case (SCC) files, additional connections are coming to light. In part 2 of this series, Stacy Cole shares her methodology for researching the SCC records and provides examples for us to learn from. – Diana Stacy’s story After the recent “Research Like A Pro” podcast episode (#124) on the Southern Claims Commission, I contacted...
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...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about the Southern Claims Commission. This record set was created for loyal southerners to seek redress for supplies seized by the Union Army during the Civil War. Many free people of color filed claims. Many witness and personal statements of former slave owners and the formerly enslaved are included. To access the records, use the index at Ancestry.com and follow the ideas at the FamilySearch Wiki article about the Southern Claims Commission. Links Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part 4: Southern Claims Commission To The Letter DNA Southern Claims Commission...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about records created during the New Deal in the 1930s that can help research African American ancestors. This is the third part in our series on researching African Americans in federal government documents. Diana shares more record groups she learned about during her IGHR course, including the 1940 census, WPA Personnel records, CCC Enrollee Records, the American Guide Series, Slave Narratives, and the Historical Records Survey. Links Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part 3 : WPA Projects and Slave Narratives RLP 121: African American Research Part 1 The Living New...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about researching African American ancestors in United States federal records using land and military records. We discuss laws that impacted free black people and freedmen in the reconstruction era. Many records were created because of the Homestead Act of 1862 and Southern Homestead Act of 1866. We go over a brief history of African American involvement in wars beginning with the Revolutionary War up until the Vietnam War, and conclude with a strategy for finding military records for ancestors. Links Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part 2 : Land and...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about researching African American records in U.S. Federal government documents. This is part one in the series. We discuss the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Freedmen’s Bank, and the U.S. Federal Census. Join us as Diana shares what she learned from the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) in Deborah A. Abbott’s course, “Researching African American Ancestors: Government Documents and Advanced Tools” and from exploring these record sets. Links Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part 1 : U.S. Federal Census, Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedman’s Bank Records – by Diana at Family...
The United States created numerous documents where your African American ancestor may be mentioned. Thousands of the formerly enslaved as well as free people of color are named in the records of the Southern Claims Commission. What are these records and how can you access them? In part 4 of this series examining government documents we will examine this valuable record set. Previous articles in this series: Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part 1: U.S. Federal Census, Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedman’s Bank Records Researching African American Ancestors in Government Documents Part 2: Land and Military Records Researching African...
What additional records can you use to research African Americans in the United States? You might be surprised to learn of the many documents created by WPA projects during the 1930s. These projects provided thousands of jobs and recorded hundreds of first-hand accounts of slavery from interviews of the previously enslaved still living at that time. Learning more about these records can give you another avenue to research in your quest to discover family connections. This series is based on information I learned in “Researching African American Ancestors: Government Documents and Advanced Tools” coordinated by Deborah A. Abbott, PhD. The...
