Few areas of American genealogy pose as much challenge as the search for African American ancestry prior to the Civil War. Notwithstanding the inherent difficulties, there are few areas that contain as much unrealized potential. Despite great strides within the last two decades, the basic outlines of the field are only now being clarified. While the difficulties of African American genealogical research are not to be discounted, these difficulties are not always insurmountable. As time goes on, the publication and indexing of pertinent genealogical source material may make success more often the rule than the exception. It is also to be hoped that, as more African Americans publish their findings, their research will contribute to the success of others, thus eventually forming a body of mutually supporting secondary literature. What helps one will ultimately help all.
Generally speaking, many of the basic tools of American genealogical research can be successfully applied to the investigation of an African American lineage going back to the Civil War. These include vital records, federal censuses, cemetery records, inscriptions, etc. Researchers should be aware, however, that many marriage, birth, and death records in the old slave states were, until recently, maintained in separate ledgers by local governments. The publication of vital records by local genealogical societies sometimes reflects this division. With the publication of indexes to the 1870 federal census enumerations, especially those for Southern states, it has become increasingly feasible for researchers of African American genealogy to trace a given line to that very important year in which ex-slaves were first enumerated as free people.
Free Blacks
At least one out of ten African Americans was already free when the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter. They were a diverse group. As with those who were enslaved, free African Americans could have racially mixed backgrounds encompassing African, Caucasian, and American Indian ancestry. Many of them came from families that had been free for several generations, perhaps stemming from the manumission of an ancestor or a liaison between an indentured white woman and a slave. Others were runaways who lived uncertain existences in the Northern states. Although not usually thought of in the category of "free black," one group enjoyed an essentially free status in affiliation with the Seminole Indians, while others formed elites in Charleston and Louisiana, where many were themselves slaveowners. They were farmers, servants, artisans, and sailors in the Northeast, in many instances descended from the slave populations that existed there when slavery was found above the Mason-Dixon line. (In the state of New York, for example, slavery was not completely abolished until 1827. Approximately ten thousand enslaved blacks were enumerated there in the 1820 census.) In parts of Ohio and Indiana, their presence was due largely to the efforts of North Carolina Quakers who manumitted their slaves and settled them in those areas. In the Border states, especially in Maryland, they made up a substantial proportion of the total black population, while in much of the Deep South they were only a tiny minority who occupied a precarious position at best.
African American researchers must be open to the possibility of encountering an antebellum free black ancestor; at the same time, however, they should not expect to find one in a time or place where the free black population was small. For example, the chances would be much higher for having such an ancestor in Virginia than in Mississippi. As with any genealogical research, knowledge of the historical context is critical to success.
In many instances, the records that are of genealogical value in the study of antebellum free blacks will not differ substantially from the records of whites. For example, the census enumerated all free people, black or white, on the same schedules.
On the other hand, the United States was a house divided. In many states free blacks were required to register proof of their status with the county government. Such documentation could take the form of copies of manumission papers or affidavits attesting birth to a free woman. Without such proof, free blacks risked abduction and enslavement, even in the North. These registers were also common in the upper South and Border states, where they not only provided protection for free blacks, but also helped to prevent slaves from passing as free people. The free black registers of Virginia counties have been increasingly finding their way into print.1 In one such register is the following noteworthy example:
"I William Moss Clerk of the County Court of Fairfax do hereby certify that the bearer hereof Levi Richardson a light coloured black boy about twenty one years of Age five feet seven Inches high, large nose thin visage . . . a scar on the left side of his head is the son of Sally Richardson a free woman emancipated by Genl. George Washington deceased as appears by an Original Register heretofore granted by the County Court of Fairfax and this day surrendered. Whereupon at the request of the said Levi Richardson I have caused him to be Registered in my office according to law. Given under my hand this 19th day of November 1834."2
Similar documentation can also be found in the courthouses of many Midwestern counties. For example, Wright State University microfilmed such records for the counties of Greene, Logan, Miami, and Montgomery in Ohio.3 More were transcribed by Joan Turpin in Register of Black, Mulatto and Poor Persons in Four Ohio Counties 1791-1861 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1985). If such records, whether in the South, Midwest, or Northeast, are indeed extant, they are not likely to be among the easier documents to locate in the county courthouse. However, more are likely to surface with the passage of time, and they will perhaps be indexed and published as well. Many have also been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.
Notes
1. Among them the following: Dorothy A. Boyd-Rush, Register of Free Blacks, Rockingham County, Virginia, 1807-1859 (Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1992); Katherine G. Bushman, Registers of Free Blacks, 1810-1864, Augusta County, Virginia and Staunton, Virginia (Verona, VA: Mid-Valley Press, 1989); Richard B. Dickinson, Entitled! Free Papers in Appalachia Concerning Antebellum Freeborn Negroes and Emancipated Blacks in Montgomery County, Virginia (Washington, DC: National Genealogical Society, 1981); Frances B. Latimer, The Register of Free Negroes: Northampton County, Virginia, 1853 to 1861 (Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1992); Dorothy S. Provine, Alexandria County, Virginia Free Negro Registers 1797-1861 (Bowie, MD: Heritage, 1990); and Donald Sweig, Registrations of Free Negroes Commencing September Court 1822 . . . (Fairfax, Va.: Fairfax County History Commission, 1977).
2. Transcribed in Sweig, 97.
3. Wright State University, "Records of Black and Mulatto Persons. . . . A printed abstract of these records entitled 'Register of Blacks in the Miami Valley: A Name Abstract (1804-1857)'" was compiled by Stephen Haller and Robert Smith.
Noted genealogist David T. Thackery passed away on 17 July 1998 at the age of 45. A native of Urbana, Ohio, David had a life-long passion for history and research. As head of the local and family history department in Chicago's Newberry Library, David dramatically expanded the library's services and collections in the area of family history, developing one of the nation's foremost genealogy collections. David was a prolific writer and bibliographer, contributing articles to major genealogical publications and compiling some of the best bibliographic sources available for African American researchers.
Finding Your African-American Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide is a new Ancestry publication that is available in The Shops @ Ancestry.com or by calling 1-800-ANCESTRY.
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