If you are researching African American family history, you need to know what slave schedules are and what they are not. These records can help you identify an enslaver, narrow a location, and strengthen a theory about a family before Emancipation. They cannot name your enslaved ancestor. That part matters. Too many beginners either skip…
If you keep searching for one ancestor in isolation and getting nowhere, that is your sign to widen the frame. Stop looking only at the person. Start looking at the people around them. In genealogy, FAN stands for Family, Associates, and Neighbors. This method matters in every kind of research, but it is especially powerful…
Researching African American genealogy can be challenging due to gaps in records caused by slavery, segregation, and other historical factors, but there are strategies and resources that can help overcome these obstacles. Here’s a list of strategies tailored for African American genealogy research: 1. Start with Oral History 2. Use Census Records 3. Explore Freedmen’s…
The Cruelest Separation One of the most devastating realities of American slavery was the forced separation of families — especially children from their parents. Enslaved children could be sold at any age, often without warning, to settle debts or increase profit for enslavers. This wasn’t just a tragedy in the moment — it had ripple…
More Than a Place of Worship For African Americans in the 19th century, the church was more than just a spiritual home — it was a sanctuary, a school, a political hub, and an archive. When county courthouses refused to record African American births, marriages, or deaths, the Black church quietly took on the role…
A Promise of Land, A Future of Loss In January 1865, as the Civil War drew to a close, Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15. This order promised formerly enslaved African Americans in coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida plots of land — up to 40 acres each — and,…
When a Name Isn’t Truly Yours For most people today, a surname is a proud family marker, passed down through generations. But for many African Americans, the names we carry were not chosen by our ancestors — they were given, taken, or forced upon them in the aftermath of slavery. After emancipation in 1865, newly…
The Document That Could Mean Life or Death Before 1865, one slip of paper could decide your entire future. For a free African American, that document was called a freedom paper — and without it, freedom could be stolen in an instant. Freedom papers served as legal proof that the person carrying them was not…
The Black Family Genealogy and History Society is pleased to invite you to our next Virtual Presentation and Business Meeting. When: Saturday November 9, 10:00 AM Arizona Time (MST/PDT) Register in advance for this presentation: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing the Zoom link to join the meeting. We encourage you to…
The JLPGC DEIB Council is excited to present our Fourth Annual Juneteenth, “Are We Really Free?” Speaker Series, on Monday, June 17, 2024, from 7:00 – 8:30pm. Our topic this year is Genealogy and How Our History Shapes Us. We will have two dynamic subject matter experts to discuss their backgrounds in tracing familial connections…