Black History Month : Genealogy
Family Tree Research
In honor of Black History Month,
we have gathered online resources to
help you research your African American family history.
Genealogy
ge·ne·al·o·gy [jnee ólljee] (plural ge·ne·al·o·gies)
noun
1.
study of the history of families: the study of the history of families
and the line of descent from their ancestors.
Step One:
Write down all that you currently know about your family history.
Start with yourself and then your parents, and then grandparents. Work
your way backwards.
Record your ancestors given names, surnames and maiden names.
Then,
try to remember dates and places of events such as births, marriages,
deaths.
Ask family members to help you fill out a family tree chart. They
could also have old letters, cards, obituaries, family bibles and
photos that may be helpful.
Make
sure you take notes when you interview your family members. This
will
help you with the next step.
Here are some free forms that you can print out to get you started. We
also highly recommend the 
Family Tree Maker genealogy software program. It is
very easy to use and creates some wonderful colored charts
and reports to print out. Best of all it allows you to type in your
family history information instead of writing it down by hand into
forms.
Step Two:
Find records to help you fill in the missing information on your family
tree charts. Start by searching records and databases that
are available
online.
Visit the
African American Research Center
and search the following databases which are available for FREE during Black History Month only.
1850 Slave Schedules
1860 Slave Schedules
1870 US Fed Census
WWI Draft Reg Cards
South Carolina Black Deaths
Slavery petitions and papers
Search the Colored Records database.
The Colored Records database contains the following:
Georgia: Columbia Co: Free Persons of Colour, 1819, Columbia
County, GA
Georgia: Irwin Co: Blacks Buried at Paulk Cemetery
North Caronlina: Cumberland Co: Colored Bride Marriage Registry
North Carolina: Cumberland Co: Colored Grooms Marriage Register
Cumberland County NC Part 1
North Carolina: Cumberland Co: Colored Grooms, Cumberland County,
NC 1901-1909
North Carolina: Cumberland Co: Cumberland County NC Colored
Grooms
Pennsylvania: Chester Co: Free Blacks, PA 1790 census
South Carolina: Newberry Co: Newberry, South Carolina Book of
Colored Marriages - Abrams, Long & Sweetenburg Surnames
Tennessee: Slaves and People of Color, 1796-1850, TN.
The Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library has Orleans
Parish death records from 1804-1915 on microfilm along with an index.
Researchers can browse the Obituary Index
of the Louisiana Division.
It has over 650,000 names.
Search the African
American
Cemeteries Online.
Types of sources that are great for genealogy research include:
Vital Records (birth, marriage, and death), census Records
(1790-1930), newspapers (obituaries, death and marriage notices), city
directories, cemetery transcriptions and grave pictures, family bibles,
military records, church records, funeral cards, social security
records.
If you need help translating African genealogy web pages, documents and
vital records you should try this free online dictionary
It translates Afrikaans to English and English to Afrikaans.
Visit the African Research
Central to learn about the archives and what collections they have
of African primary sources. And, also check Africa
Catholic Church Sources.
A free newsgroup focusing on genealogy for those who have African
ancestors. soc.genealogy.african
Visit Genealogy.com (Birth, marriage, death
indexes; scanned census records and more)
Want
to learn more about
doing African-American genealogy research? Read these articles:
African American Research, Part 1
African American Research, Part 2
African American Research, Part 3: Case Studies
The Challenge of African American Research
Guide
to African American Genealogical Research in New Orleans
February
is Black History Month.
Carter G. Woodson, aka "Father of Black History", established
Negro History Week back in 1926 to celebrate the
many achievements of African-Americans. Woodson was the son of former
slaves and wanted to ensure that black history was accurately learned.
It is now know as Black History
Month. February was choosen because that is the month of two
birthdays
of men who really influenced the balck population. The men are Abe
Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
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PBS will air the program African
American Lives on Feb 1 and Feb 8, 2006. The program will
discuss eight famous African Americans and their family tree.
They will narrate one African American story in particular.
Ancestry.com provided the genealogy research and support for the PBS
program.
African American Lives (DVD)
Enter the Coca-Cola Sweepstakes. You can win a copy of the
genealogy
program, Family Tree Maker ; a subscription to 
Ancestry.com and even a consultation with a professional genealogist
who will help you research your Black American family tree.
Are you an educator? Learn how to teach your student how to
do genealogy research on their own. 
-Creating Junior Genealogists
PBS is also holding educator training.
Are you a member of the Boys and Girls Club of America?
Ancestry.com
will be providing each chapter / club with a FREE subscription and
portal
specifically tailored for the BGCA.
Five generations on Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina.1864.
Learn about Black / African American History
Timeline of
African American History, 1852-1925.
In July 2004, the estimated population of black residents in the United
States of America was 39.2 million,
which includes those of more than one race. Over 13 percent of the
total U.S. population was Black. When the first U.S. census was
taken
in 1790, African Americans numbered about 760,000 which was about 19%
of the entire population.
Statistics of the Negroes in the
United States. Henry Gannett (Baltimore, 1894).
Scanned
images of the above book is available online via the Library of
Congress.
The full text and illustrations of The Varick
Family
by Benjamin F. Wheeler are online. Jame Varick was the founder
and 1st
Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E.Z.) Church.
This
book contains detailed information about this family along with a
family tree.
Family Tree
of Frederick Douglass
1860 Slave Schedule (PDF Format)
African-American Women On-line Archival Collections Special Collections
Library, Duke University -
Orignial documents - scanned images and transcriptions
Elizabeth Johnson
Harris
Slave letter by Vilet
Lester 1857
Hannah Valentine
and Lethe Jackson (slave letters, 1837-1838)
Life of James Mars, a Slave Born
and Sold in Connecticut. James
Mars (Hartford, Conn., 1866). Scanned
images of the whole book.
Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture Explore collections, archives
and materials about Black history.
Case Study: Determining
Maternity by Correlating Records of Alpheus Beall's Slaves
To see the Born in Slavery: Slave
Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
James Madison owned 100 plus slaves who worked at Montpelier, his
family home in
central Virginia. The descendants of slaves who
once labored at Montpelier gather at a reunion
for the past few years. They hold genealogical and historical seminars;
guided walks through the house, the sites of outbuildings, and the
slave cemetery.
Visit their website at: http://www.montpelier-reunion.org/
African-American Heroes of World War II (DVD)
African American Family Histories
Help for African American Research
Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African
American Family Tree
A
Negro Congregation in Washington. 1876
Africa: Africa Hardcover Book
Africa 4PK DVD (DVD)
Some African-American
Facts for Black History Month:
Condoleeza Rice was the first female black Sectretary of State for the
United States of America.
The very first black chairman of Join Chiefs of Staff for the U.S.A.
was Colin L. Powell.
In 1969, the first black woman was elected to Congress. Her name was
Shirley Chisholm.
The first black male Democrat that was elected to the U.S. Senate was
Barack Obama.
In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks was the first black to ever get a Pulitzer
Prize.
In 1956, Nat King Cole was the first African-American to host his own
national television show.
The first African-American to win an Oscar for best actor was Sidney
Poitier. Denzel Washington recently won an Oscar.
Martin Luther King, Jr was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader
who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Malcolm X was a famous African-American activist who was born in Omaha,
Nebraska, USA. He formed the Organization of African American Unity.
Here is the TV Schedule for the
Biography Channel for Black
History Month :
February
2, 2006: 9pm ET/PT: Biography: Colin Powell and at
11pm ET/PT: Famous: Denzel Washington.
February 15, 2006: 9pm ET/PT: Biography: Rosa Parks
February 16, 2006: 8pm
ET/PT: Dark Stars: Jimi Hendrix
February 17, 2006: 9pm ET/PT: Biography: Nelson Mandela
February 21, 2006: 9pm ET/PT: Biography: Lesra Martin
February 22, 2006: 8pm ET/PT: Class of..: 2001: Bernie Mac
and at 9pm ET/PT: Biography: Arthur Ashe.
February 23, 2006: 9pm ET/PT: Biography: Malcolm X
February 24, 2006: 4pm ET/PT: Players: Condoleeza
Rice and
at 5pm ET/PT: Players: Colin Powell and at 8pm ET/PT: Race to the
Red
Carpet: Chris Rock.
Wonders of the African World (DVD)
Celebrate Black History Month
by celebrating your family. Do you know who your ancestors are?
The subject matter of this website is related to these topics: African american genealogy for black history month; roots (black slaves) and their african american history.
Famous african americans and their cultural history and black american history including african american slaves.
African american culture with black history people along with african american family and the slave families and histories.
And, also African American DNA testing or genetic test kits to discover their deep ancestry.
These links are being provided as a convenience and for
informational
purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by
the webmaster.
This Black
History Month (BHM) webpage is being hosted by Ancestral Branches.
