During the first two months of the new year–with the commemoration of the life of Martin Luther King in January and Black History month in February–we have wonderful opportunities to celebrate the richness of African American history and heritage. Genealogists are fortunate to have bountiful resources available to them for researching African American family histories. In recent years, a number of outstanding guidebooks have been added to an already strong collection of such works. And a growing collection of primary and important secondary source materials for African American research is being published in a microtext format, making these resources readily available to interested researchers.

The book begins with a thorough discussion of how to conduct solid research right from the start of one’s genealogical journey. Included in this discussion is how to appropriately record and document information. Two great sections detail the proper techniques for oral history and getting the most from the family archives.

Cover to cover, a researcher can find many record examples and detailed record descriptions. The examples used throughout the book bring the work to life and make the strategies more meaningful and more clearly understood.

Also published in 2001 was an excellent booklet by National Archives Reference Specialist, Reginald Washington. Available as a free publication from the National Archives, Black Family Research: Records of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives (Reference Information Paper 108) highlights the history and records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands or Freedmen’s Bureau, the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, and the Commissioners of Claims or Southern Claims Commission. The details provided about these federal agencies show how diverse and rich the records of these late-nineteenth-century entities truly are.

In addition to listing specific types of records generated by these agencies and providing sample documents, this publication also provides worthwhile historical context for both the documents and the federal agencies. It is of great assistance in helping researchers to quickly find information about an ancestor as well as more clearly understand the information presented.

The author explains that most individuals came in contact with the Bureau at the local level. Thus, the majority of the identifying information and genealogical data can be found in the records of the Bureau’s field offices. Some of those records include labor contracts (both with individuals and families), claims for back pay, bounty payments, and pensions. Checklists of documents are provided in this work as well as search strategies.

Many search tips are included for working with these records and numerous references are given for specific National Archives record groups. The brevity and clarity of this publication combine to make it a must-consult resource guide for researchers looking for African American genealogical data in the immediate post-war period of the 1860s and 1870s.

Finding Your African American Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide by David Thackery is another noteworthy guidebook. This 2000 Ancestry publication incorporates a further meaningful approach to assisting researchers–the case study. This work includes eleven case studies from a number of states both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Examining case studies provides real-life examples of sound research methodology and demonstrates where records are found and how evidence from those records is gathered and analyzed to reach appropriate conclusions.

There is always much to be learned from good case studies, and Thackery uses them well. Complementing these case studies is a useful beginner’s guide that doubles as a fitting refresher for those who do not consider themselves beginners, and a couple of bibliographies listing sources for further study.

As a final example of the guides available for individuals researching African American genealogy and family history is African American Genealogy: A Bibliography and Guide to Sources, by Curt B. Witcher (Round Tower Books, 2000). In large part, this work demonstrates how many and how varied are the sources available for researchers of African American genealogy in nearly every part of the country.

As with similar works in the field, this text begins with tips, strategies, and methodology for furthering research. The majority of the work, however, is given over to a bibliography of sources. Simply skimming the pages of this book will leave researchers impressed with how many unique materials can be used to advance genealogical pursuits. And since few bibliographies can be exhaustively comprehensive, observing what documents, records, and publication are available for one tidewater state can provide clues for similar materials in other areas of the region.

From Afro-Americans in New York Life and History and the Journal of the Afro-Louisiana Historical and Genealogical Society to the Frontier Freedman’s Journal and From the Baobab Tree, the researcher finds a treasure-trove of record examples, abstracts, indexes, and record transcriptions in genealogical periodicals. Whether the journal is currently being published, as is the case with the above-mentioned titles, or a defunct publication such as Indiana’s Ebony Lines, the quantity and quality of information presented in these works make them vital to any successful research endeavor.

While some researchers may evaluate the usefulness of a publication based on whether or not the surnames they are searching can be found in the index, genealogical periodical literature excels in providing location-specific methodological strategies for finding and evaluating historical evidence as well as names. Who better than the researchers in a particular county or region to provide listings of the most important repositories as well as details on those repositories’ procedures and holdings? And who better than area experts to provide information on hidden or frequently overlooked records and sources?

Using genealogical periodical literature is a bit like having your own personal research assistant. Indeed, several years of a particular title can provide indexes, transcriptions, and abstracts of useful records; a descriptive listing of key repositories; lists of recently published materials about the area and acquisition lists of area libraries and societies; a directory of individuals who can provide guidance and assistance to remote researchers; a catalog of sources unique to the area or time period; and methodology tips. And although ethnic periodicals have tremendous amounts of information to offer, the periodicals that are strictly geographically based should not be overlooked.

There are two very important record groups that those researching African American family history need to use. The first is the letters, diaries, and daybooks of plantation owners, residents, business people, and companies in the areas where African Americans lived before and after the War Between the States. The second is the increasing number of original source documents being made available in a microtext format. Millions of images of records documenting African American life are being committed to microfilm. The resource pool is truly exploding.

The Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War (University Publications of America, 198-) is an extraordinary microfilm publication capturing life in the South for nearly the first century of this country’s existence. The details captured in the many different types of documents are impressive–from bills of sale and auction reports to commentary on religious preaching and letters to family and friends, and from factors impacting very local economies and crop rotation to overseers’ records and blanket rationing.

The antebellum plantation records are complemented by several microfilm publications from University Publications of America including Slavery in Ante-Bellum Southern Industries and Records of Southern Plantations from Emancipation to the Great Migration. As with records mentioned in the previous paragraph, these are filled to overflowing with legal documents, agricultural news including seed production and the productivity of farm hands, personal writings of all kinds, and documents of the business activities including sales. They contain many names and provide rich details of the fabric of the small communities as well as the more populous towns of the time.

Some researchers shy away from these records as they are copies of original documents and can be challenging to read and decipher. Further, the records typically only have finding aids rather than every-name indexes. However, because the records are so filled with names and important data to use in placing genealogical research in a proper context, they simply must be used.

As letters, diaries, and daybooks can provide important research data, over the last five to ten years some truly extraordinary collections of additional primary source documents consequential for African American family history have been microfilmed. These also contribute substantially to a researcher’s resource pool. Many of these microfilmed collections have research guides produced for them, which enhances their value.

One such collection produced by University Publications of America, an imprint of Lexis-Nexis, is Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks (Bethesda, MD, 1999). The particular series under this title that deals with petitions to southern legislatures from 1777 to 1867 is rich with a variety of document types. This collection is such a gem that the guide prepared for it is filled with robust abstracts detailing by name many of the individuals involved in specific petitions. Often the abstract alone can provide meaningful direction in determining a particular geographic location and time period to search for additional data. The guide also provides exact microfilm frame numbers to easily locate where a specific petition is located.

Throughout these petitions, researchers can find a variety of records and record types, all evidencing African Americans in the United States in a rather early time period. Researchers can find deeds of sale of slaves to particular individuals and estates, slaves being emancipated by wills, freed African Americans petitioning to remain in the locale of their enslaved wives and children, and citizens petitioning for all manner of activities to be ordered upon African Americans, both slave and free.

A premier African American genealogy site is AfriGeneas. This site lives up to its claim of being "a site devoted to African American genealogy." There are links to important resources such as the surname database and the slave data collection. The online library is also an impressive and growing resource for genealogists.

Christine's Genealogy Website is another great site on the Web for those researching African American families. The site provides links and portals to useful data files. It also has information about recent publications, both virtual and print, and some of the latest news relating to discoveries of African American families and records.

As we celebrate African American heritage, we should also celebrate the true blessing of resources we have that allow us to dig deeper into African American family history.

Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA, is the president of the National Genealogical Society and the manager of the historical genealogy department for the Allen County Public Library. He is also a popular genealogical lecturer.

Return to the Ancestry Magazine January/February 2003 table of contents.