This is an alphabetical list of MANY resources that will be useful to your family research. You will want to return to this page often.
Academic Collections
Yale University Slavery and Abolition Portal is designed to help researchers find primary sources related to slavery, abolition and resistance within the university's many libraries and galleries.
http://slavery.yale.edu/
The ProQuest African American Heritage collection includes marriage, cohabitation, and registers of slaves and free persons of color that date from the early 1800s. The records include North Carolina Cohabitation Records (1820-1868); Marriage Records from Brooke County, West Virginia (1909-1937); Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana Registers of Slaves and Free Persons of Color from a variety of counties (1780-1864); and U.S. Colored Troop Records (1861-1865). The collection can only be accessed through libraries that subscribe to ProQuest.
http://www.proquest.com/en=US/aboutus/pressroom/10/20100816.shtml
Africana Heritage
This project, sponsored by the University of South Florida, is an all-volunteer research project and website sponsored. Their research mission is to rediscover records that document the names and lives of slaves, freedpersons and their descendants, and to share those records on their free Internet site. Access to all content is free.
www.africanaheritage.com
Afrigeneas
OBA is a founding member of this site that promotes research of African ancestry in the Americas via an interactive community of researchers. The site offers forums, weekly chats, mailing lists, a surname database, obituaries and funeral programs, slave records, census schedule transcriptions, a library of documents and articles, RSS news feeds and a family reunion planning site.
http://www.afrigeneas.com/
AfriQuest: The People's Archive
One of the biggest challenges people of African ancestry face when tracing their family heritage is the lack of records available for research. There are plenty of records which contain valuable information on African and African American ancestry, they just aren't out there in a free, central place where researchers can find them. That's why AfriQuest was born - to be a central home for records of interest to anyone researching African and African American heritage. The Afriquest database will allow anyone with a free account to add records, including both text and images. Anyone will be able to access, print and use the records for research purposes - absolutely free.
www.afriquest.com
Ancestry.com
Although this is a very rich and useful tool for genealogical research, OBA does not promote them. They control most of the genealogy market through ownership of Rootsweb, Footnote and many other genealogical data sites, generating profits of more than $160 million each year. Although they are almost indispensable to genealogy research, you will have to connect with them on your own.They terminated my affiliation because "Ancestry" is part of my URL name and I refused to change it for their convenience.
Black Germans
Persons of African descent have been present in Europe throughout history. The Transatlantic slave trade fundamentally reconfigured Afro-European relations, transforming perceptions of black people throughout the Atlantic world. This site links Black Germans living in the US and Germany in a forum that explores their cultural heritage.
www.blackgermans.us
There is also a blogspot that connects researchers who are seeking family.
www.blackgermansearches.blogspot.com
British Slave Records
Ancestry.co.uk has 3 million names of slaves held across the British Empire from 1812-1834. The names come from 700 registers in 23 British territories and dependencies that the British government created in an effort to stamp out the slave trade. The database is searchable by first and last name, island, plantation, age and sex.
http://content.ancestry.co.uk/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=1129&offerid=0:7858:0
Canadian Records
Library and Archives Canada offers a Canadian Families database where researchers can access references to baptisms, marriages and burials inscribed in church records. The database will expand slowly over the next few years as more references are added.
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/families/index-e.html
Caribbean Records
There is a limited amount of information and internet activity related to Caribbean genealogy. Caribbean Roots was launched in 2007 to encourage and promote research into Caribbean genealogy, identity and heritage.
http://www.caribbeanroots.co.uk/
Before the U.S. Virgin Islands were a Caribbean paradise, they served as a major stop along the slave trade route. Compiled by the Virgin Islands Social History Associates, this is one of the most extensive compilations of slave trading records available, documenting everything from ship lists to slave lists to a general census once people were free.
http://landing.ancestry.com/vi/?o_iid=39303&o_lid=39303
L'Association de Genealogie d'Haiti provides access to the national archive of 622,000 names starting from 1793. Site is available in both English and French.
http://agh.qc.ca/indexen.html
Cemeteries
A database of black burial grounds in several states, Canada and Barbados. The list is evolving but could be useful in finding graves. There is a search by surname facility.
www.africanamericancemeteries.com
Coal Miners
A review of the history of coal mining with a list of African American minors in KS, WA, IL and KY.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~blackcoalminers/
Cowboys
The history of black cowboys with short biographies of the most noteworthy.
www.federationofblackcowboysnyc/com
Death Indices
This website is a directory of links to websites with online death indexes, listed by state and county. Included are death records, death certificate indexes, death notices and registers, obituaries, probate indexes, and cemetery & burial records. You can also find information here about searching the Social Security Death Index online.
http://www.deathindexes.com/
DNA Testing
Family Tree DNA, started in 2000, is led by Dr. Michael Hammer, one of the world's leading authorities in the field of genetics. They are associated with the National Geographic genographic project and do specialized testing for Native and African American ancestry that is the most economical we have found.
www.familytreeDNA.com
African Ancestry is an African American owned company that does DNA testing. They are the only company whose tests will place your African ancestry in a present-day country/region in Africa.
www.africanancestry.com
Encyclopedia of Genealogy
A free-content free-access encyclopedia created by its readers that serves as a standard genealogy reference manual. It tells you where to find records, how to organize your data, what the terminology means and how to plan research. It also has a section on how to research African and Native American ancestors.
http://www.eogen.com/
Family Connections
The African American Families Database project is hosted by the Central Virginia History Researchers (CVHR), a partnership between local historians, anthropologists, database designers, and community residents. CVHR is developing an on-line database for connecting African-American families to their antebellum roots and tracing patterns of community formation in the post-bellum period. They are experimenting with ways to trace ante-bellum ancestors, locate descendants of enslaved individuals, and map social networks.
www.centralvirginiahistory.org
Coming to the Table is an initiative to involve direct descendants of slavery -- black AND white --in exploring their unique role in addressing the legacy of slavery. It brings together people whose ancestors were linked by a slave/slaveowner relationship. Their goal is to help heal the traumatic impact of slavery on individuals, families and the American nation.
http://www.comingtothetable.org/
Family Search
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) is the largest proponent and repository of genealogical information in the world. Family history is integral to their religious beliefs. Their site has a wealth of free material, including African American information. This link takes you directly to the African American collection.
www.familysearch.org/Eng/home/welcome/site_resources.asp
Freedmen's Bureau Records
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in the War Department by a Congressional act of March 3, 1865. The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. The bureau records were created or maintained by bureau headquarters, the assistant commissioners and the state superintendents of education and included personnel records and a variety of standard reports concerning bureau programs and conditions in the states. You can search these records at their site.
www.freedmensbureau.com
Free People
Links to lists of free African Americans, Native American slaves and free Native Americans identified in colonial court records of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. First names only, no surnames. There are also image links.
http://freeafricanamericans.com/
Genealogical Societies
A listing of African American genealogical and historical societies and museums in the US, Canada and the Caribbean.
http://www.blackgenealogysummit.com/blacksocieties.html
The Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (AAHGS) strives to preserve African-ancestored family history, genealogy and cultural diversity by teaching research techniques and disseminating information. They promote scholarly research, provide resources for historical and genealogical studies, create a network of persons with similar interests, and assist members in documenting their histories. They do not provide research services, however they do offer a scholarly journal, abstracts of manuscripts and records from court houses, archives, churches and other primary sources; a newsletter; an annual conference and their website.
www.aahgs.org
The National Genealogical Society (NGS), founded in 1903, is dedicated to serving and growing the genealogical community by providing education and training, fostering increased quality and standards, and promoting access to and preservation of genealogical records.
www.ngsgenealogy.org
Genealogy Research Consultant
USA Griot is a genealogy company that specializes in African American family historythat specializes in Black American family history in all regions and all time periods, including mixture with Native American and European American. The company researches slavery to the present, slave ancestors, free persons of color before the end of slavery, the Middle Passage and African heritage. With offices located near the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, they have access to billions of records. Their researchers have doctorate, genealogy certification, years of experience, other credentials and accomplishments. They are members of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Better Business Bureau.
http://www.usagriot.com/about_us.php
Gullah/Geechee Culture
Sponsored by the Magnolia Plantation Foundation of Charleston, SC, this site is dedicated to documenting the cultural heritage of African Americans in the historic rice growing areas of South Carolina, Georgia and northeastern Florida. These areas are recognized by scholars and preservationists as the distinctive and rich home of rich Gullah/Geechee culture. Of special interest are the records of the Drayton family plantations.
www.lowcountryafricana.net
Images of Slavery
The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record is an online archive of approximately 1,235 images. It is a resource that can be used by teachers, researchers and students -- anyone interested in the experiences of Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas and the lives of their descendants in the slave societies of the New World.
www.slaveryimages.org
University of Virginia collection of more than one thousand images from a wide range of sources, dating back to the 1700s.
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php
The Randolph Linsly Simpson African American Collection at Yale University presents a vivid picture of black life and American racial attitudes from the 1850s to the 1940s. Includes photographs in all formats, including hundreds of daguerreotypes and tintype portraits documenting both known and unknown African American subjects. There are formal studio portraits of politicians and bankers, cowboys, workmen, families, African-American men in military service, emancipated slave children, and carnival performers; acts of racism, oppression, and violence.
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/simpson.html
20th Century Photos of Ex-Slaves is a compilation of hundreds of photos of former slaves, most of them associated with the WPA Slave Narrative project.
www.flickr.com/photos/55915010@N00/sets/72157625174877501/
Immigration Records
The USCIS Genealogy Program is a fee-for-service program providing access to historical immigration and naturalization records including naturalization certificate forms, alien registration forms, visa files, registry files and alien files.
http://www.uscis.gov/
Land Patents
Online access to Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States. There is also image access to more than three million Federal land title records for Eastern Public Land States, issued between 1820 and 1908. Currently adding images of Military Land Warrants which were land patents issued to individuals as a reward for their military service.
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
Liberian Repatriates
The stories of 15,000+ African-Americans who emigrated to Liberia between 1820 and 1904 are on this site. This database lists many individuals who were born in the 1700s - a rare find in black genealogy.
www.liberianrepatriates.com
Between 1820 and 1865, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, more than 3,700 African-Americans from Virginia emigrated to Liberia. Some went eagerly, others left reluctantly in exchange for their freedom. Some prospered; many perished. In 1847 they helped establish the first African republic. This website shares decades of research into the lives of the emigrants and emancipators, featuring a searchable database, stories of emigrants' experiences and related resources.
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/liberia
Local Research
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites provides an exhaustive listing of genealogical resources, categorized and cross-referenced according to interests. There is an extensive section on African American genealogy that is updated regularly.
http://www.cyndislist.com/african.htm
Lynching
Untold thousands of African Americans have been lynched. The name of the practice comes from Col. Charles Lynch, a Virginia landowner circa 1790. He had a habit of holding illegal trials of local lawbreakers in his front yard. During slavery, executions, whippings, brandings, and other forms of severe punishment were meted out by authority of the master or his representative. Often, slaves were assembled and made to witness the punishment. Later, white mobs gathered for lynchings, reveling in their brutality and even sending postcards to mark the occasion. This is a link to an admittedly incomplete list of more than 4,000 names of people who were lynched from 1865-1965.
http://www.autopsis.org/foot/lynchnames.html
The following information is from a dissertation entitled “Stranger Fruit: The Lynching of Black Women, The Cases of Rosa Richardson and Marie Scott" by Maria DeLongoria. It includes the names of approximately one hundred and fifty four women who were lynched
American Legacy is a quarterly magazine devoted to African American history and culture. It provides an historical chronicle of accomplishments achieved, hardships endured, obstacles overcome, written in a way that is positive and uplifting.
www.americanlegacymag.com
Johnson Publishing Company was at the forefront of documenting African American history, politics, issues and social life. In 2009, they partnered with Google Books to digitize their magazine archives. Full issues of Ebony, Jet and Black World are available and the content is searchable.
Ebony: http://books.google.com/books?id=PtMDAAAAMBAJ
Jet: http://books.google.com/books?id=oTgDAAAAMBAJ
The NAACP Crisis magazine is now available on Google books. Issues cover the years 1910-2000.
Map of Slavery
A map of slavery in the 19th Century.The map shows in graphic terms the density of the slave population
in the Southern states, based on figures from the 1860 census.The map was created to understand the secession crisis, by providing a visual link between secession and slavery. This map was frequently consulted by President Abraham Lincoln in considering the relationship between emancipation and military strategy.
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/history/CivilWar/docs/Slave_Density_Map.pdf
Military Records
A variety of military records, from photos to documents to searchable databases are available from the National Archives. These include records from the Revolutionary War through modern conflicts.
http://www.archives.gov/research/military/veterans/online.html
A database of more than 10,000 Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters.
http://southerncampaign.org/pen/
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing basic facts about people who served on both sides during the Civil War. The Names Index Project includes information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. Other information includes: histories of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies, links to descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war, and other historical information. Additional information about soldiers, sailors, regiments, and battles, as well as prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, will be added over time.
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
Vietnam War Casualities is a memorial website honoring the 58,261 women and men who are named on "The Wall", the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. There is a searchable index of casualties by name and state.
www.virtualwall.org
National Archives & Records Administration (NARA)
Of all the documens and materials created in the course of business conducted by the US government, only 1-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept forever. NARA is the repository for these records and makes them available to the public. This link takes you to the repository for ethnic research -- including records pertinent to African Americans.
www.archives.gov/genealogy/heritage/index.html
National Museum of African American History & Culture
A new national museum is in formation under the auspices of The Smithsonian Institution. It will be a dynamic repository of the history and culture of African Americans. While the physical structure is in development, the museum will provide an online presence which is seeking to accumulate oral histories.
http://www.nmaahc.si.edu
Newspapers
Genealogy Bank is a fully searchable and expanding collection of newspapers that provide details about the daily lives of millions of African Americans in 280 newspapers dated 1827-1999. Find family history records across the U.S. including obituaries, military records, advertisements, editorials, illustrations and more. This is a subscription service but they frequently offer free trials.
http://www.genealogybank.com/static/african-american-heritage.htm
http://www.afro.com/afroblackhistoryarchives/
Online Family Tree
Geni is home of the "World Family Tree," a collaborative family history community. Members can invite and add relatives to build their family tree and find out how they are related to others. It is also possible to link Geni to a Facebook page. More than 100 million family profiles are loaded onto this site.
Online Searchable DatabasesThere are many, however the two that are free include:
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
www.familysearch.org
Online Study
Learn the basics of how to do family research. There is an extensive list of free courses on African American research.
https://library.familysearch.org//researchcourses#usa_research
Pension Bureau Files
Nearly 200,000 African Americans served as soldiers and sailors during the Civil War. Black Union veterans and their families benefitted from a federal pension system created in 1862. It provided benefits to disabled soldiers, their widows, orphans and other dependents. This link takes you to the US Pension bureau index to Service Records of Civil War veterans.
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/voices.html
Pirates
Pirates have been around as long as people have used the oceans as trade routes. Some estimate that nearly 5000 pirates plied the seas between 1715 and 1726. Of that number, 25-30% were cimarrons: Black slaves who ran away from their Spanish masters. Their ranks increased whenever they attacked slave ships.
http://www.cindyvallar.com/blackpirates.html
Plantations
A repository for information about South Carolina plantations and the people who lived and worked on them. It includes data for more than 2,000 SC plantations, all established before the Civil War.
http://south-carolina-plantations.com/
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome
After 20 years of social work and 12 years of research, Dr. Joy DeGruy developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. It explains the etiology of many of the adaptive survival behaviors in African American communities throughout the United States and the Diaspora. She explores replacing behaviors which are today maladaptive with ones that will promote, ensure and sustain the healing and advancement of African American culture. Her theory is presented in a book, DVD and a national speaking tour.
www.posttraumaticslavesyndrome.com
Prison Records
Prison records from all over the US including the infamous Alcatraz prison in California.
http://www.ancestorhunt.com/genealogical_prison_records.htm
Reparations
For information about the history of the African American reparations movement and updated material on its ongoing efforts, consult the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America.
http://www.ncobra.org/index.html
The Restitution Study Group is a not-for-profit institute based in New York City. They examine innovative approaches to securing justice for injuries inflicted upon oppressed people. A key area of their work is slavery restitution research, education, and outreach. They recently filed nine class action lawsuits against corporations for slavery restitution and consumer fraud and won an historic victory in getting on the docket of the US Supreme Court.
www.rsgincorp.com
Roots TV
The African Roots Channel on Roots Television features free genealogy and family history videos that highlight African ancestry research and records, slave and probate records, AAHGS and other African ancestry conferences and lectures, DNA and genetic genealogy and more.
http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_africanroots3.php
Runaway Slave Ads
"Geography of Slavery in Virginia" is a digital collection of advertisements for runaway and captured slaves and servants in 18th- and 19th-century Virginia newspapers. Building on the rich descriptions of individual slaves and servants in the ads, the project offers a personal, geographical and documentary context for the study of slavery in Virginia, from colonial times to the Civil War.
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/gos/
Slave Narratives
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 3,500 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the 17-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
Southern Claims Commission
One of the most valuable sources of genealogy for anyone with southern U.S. ancestry, Southern Claims Commission records provide a wealth of information not found in census records, church records, tax lists or elsewhere. More than twenty thousand claims were filed, most from the states of AL, AR, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA and WV. The files from 1871-1880 are available by subscription on Footnote.com.
http://www.footnote.com/search.php?query=Southern+Claims+Commission
Slave Descendants Freedom Society
This is a non-profit genealogy and slave history membership organization. Its mission is to encourage African Americans to use genealogy to restore families separated by slavery. Their "Operation Restore Families" is meant to inspire the general public to learn more about African American history as it relates to American history. The organization hosts traveling workshops and heritage tours. They are planning to build a "Restoration Center" in The Gambia, Africa.
http://www.slavedescendants.org/
Slavery Era Insurance Registry
The California Department of Insurance registry of insurance policies from the slavery era. These documents were discovered in the archives of several insurance companies nationwide. The policies document insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves. The database is searchable by slave or slaveholder name.
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0300-public-programs/0200-slavery-era-insur/
Slave Narratives
Seven hours of recorded interviews that took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/
Slave Surnames
In 2001, Tom Blake began transcribing names of some of the largest slaveholders and matching the surnames with numbers of African Americans on the 1870 census. He compiled name lists that can be linked to through this page. The names on these lists are slaveholders who were some of the largest slaveholders in the listed County in 1860.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/
Slave Trade
The African Slave Trade: A selection of cases from the Records of the U.S. District Courts in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Records maintained by NARA.
http://www.archives.gov/southeast/finding-aids/african-slave-trade.pdf
Software - Personal Ancestry File (PAF)
Free genealogy and family history software created by the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). PAF allows you to quickly and easily collect, organize and share your genealogical information.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
Teaching About Slavery
SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA tells the broad story of American slavery through the lives of individual enslaved men, women and children. The four one-hour programs drew strong audiences across America and reviews were almost universally positive. The follow-up was is a website built by teachers for teachers. It features maps, timelines and lesson plans.
www.slaveryinamerica.org/series
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
Spearheaded by Emory University, this free database documents three centuries of the slave trade from Africa to the New World from 15114-1866. It includes searchable information on nearly 35,000 trips and the names of 70,000 human cargo. The database lists the slaves' African names. Site visitors can search by voyage or name or look at estimates of how many people were transported and enslaved.
www.slavevoyages.org
US Genweb
A group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. Organization is by county and state. Visitors are provided with links to all state genealogy websites which, in turn, provide gateways to counties. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone. One of their special projects is dedicated to assisting those in pursuit of African American ancestry by being a central depository for African Amerian records of historical proportion.
The general address is www.usgenweb.org
The address for the African American depository is http://aagriots.org