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Mullin' Marrow & Ponderin' Pith

A genealogical blog of reflections about my family history and my experiences as a genealogist.

Antebellum and Post Antebellum Era African-American Genealogical Resources

6/20/2017

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The Kingsley Plantation, Florida. Image property of author.
As a black citizen of the U.S., tracing my family history was relatively easy until I passed the 1870s.

Slavery can throw one heck of a curve ball backed by a brick wall for many genealogists. 

Fortunately, there are ways to bust through the wall and not be taken out by the pitch.

First, you’ll need to know whether or not your ancestor was free or enslaved during the early 1860s.
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If free, use the same channels you would for any other free person: census records, court orders, land records, vital records, etc., working backward through time and add manumission records to your search. FamilySearch makes Finkleman’s State Slavery Statutes available on microfilm so you can see if your ancestor’s state required free blacks to register.
Picture
The Kingsley Plantation, Florida. Image property of the author.
If enslaved, your job may be more difficult. Begin by looking at the 1870 census and figuring out where the person lived. Next, look for a white person with that same last name on the 1860 census for the same area. If you find it, look for the white person on the 1870 census and compare the dollar value of their property. A drop from 1860 to 1870 can be indicative of the loss of slaves. Locate the white person on the 1860 Slave Schedules and see if there is an individual close in age to your ancestor.

You can also use the records of the Freedman’s Bureau and the Freedman’s Bank records to try to find your ancestor.

Probate records may help. While perhaps not named in the actual will, slaves were sometimes named and usually at least described in the inventory of the estate.  

The online presence of records pertaining to enslaved and free black Americans grows daily:

Afrigeneas contains:
  • census records or schedules pertaining to African-Americans from 26 states.
  • death records database that allows you to search by surname, first name, death city or death year
  • photo collection searchable by name
  • slave data collection searchable by surname containing wills, inventories, bible records, slave manifests, etc.​
Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1718 – 1820 has over 100,000 descriptions of slaves in Louisiana documents.  It is searchable by gender, racial description, origin, time period, or plantation location.
The Library of Congress “Born in Slavery” Collection consists of over 2300 slave narratives arranged in volumes alphabetically by state.  The narratives were collected between 1936 and 1938 in 17 states.
The University of North Carolina Greensboro’s Digital Library on American Slavery holds over 2300 North Carolina runaway slave advertisements, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, slave deeds of North Carolina, and slave-era insurance registries.
The Freedman’s Bureau Online has freedman labor and marriage records as well as Murders and Outrages.
Lowcountry Africana focuses on African-American genealogy in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and contains voter registrations, plantation records, Freedman’s records, research guides and finding aids. 

Remember, many websites continue to add records so be sure to either check back for updates or sign up for alerts.

Good luck!
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Obituaries

6/6/2017

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Image courtesy Newspapers.com
An obituary can be extremely helpful to a genealogical researcher. It can substantiate a bible record or family legend. Sometimes it is the only death record you can find.

But where do you search for them? 

Before you begin it is important to understand a few things:
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1.  While obituaries are commonplace now, they weren’t commonplace in newspapers until the early to mid-1800s—depending upon the paper.
2.  In the beginning, only the death of a “Somebody” made the newspaper. If the person you seek was poor, you might not find his or her death in the paper.
3.  Historically, obituaries weren’t the only sources of information about a person’s death.  There was also the death notice, which was a short announcement about a death perhaps with funeral arrangements, and the card of thanks. The card of thanks was placed in the paper by the deceased’s family as an acknowledgement of the assistance and encouragement received from friends and neighbors.
Picture
Image held by author.
Picture
Image held by author.
Picture
Image courtesy Newspapers.com
4.  It is possible that some of the information in an obituary may be incorrect. 

Now, where do you find them?

Generally, you will find obituaries in a newspaper. However, they were also printed in funeral programs provided by the mortuary, genealogical or historical society publications, and other places. Thankfully, there are plenty of online locations to begin the search for an obituary. Remember, indexes are your friends that can point you to the actual obituary in a more efficient manner. Some are even FREE:


  • Google-search the county or town of the deceased + “obituary index” to find indexes which may be locally held. Depending on the area, there may be a LOT of these.
  • FamilySearch has an obituary index that links to GenealogyBank’s database of 1980 - 2014 obituaries.
  • The Obituary Daily Times is a volunteer driven index containing over 13 million obituaries!

Once you find the obit via an index, The LOC’s Chronicling America can tell you which repositories hold the newspaper (usually on microfilm or fiche) you seek.

For-fee online sites which hold newspaper images include Ancestry.com, GenealogyBank, Newspapers.com, and others.

Happy hunting!
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    Cynthia Maharrey
    Born and raised in a small town in West Virginia before the turn of the century, Cynthia has always been fascinated by the intricacies that make up her own family history.  As a result, she has been researching and studying it since the late 1900's.
    Memberships

    -Association of Professional Genealogists
    -African American Genealogical Group of Kentucky
    -Kentucky Genealogical Society
    ​-Kentucky Historical Society
    -Greenbrier County (West Virginia) Historical Society
    -Monroe County (West Virginia) Historical Society

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