African American Family History Resources hero
African American Family History Resources hero
African American Family History Resources
African American Genealogy Research Guide
Researching African American ancestors requires creative search methods, a knowledge of the types of records available, and patience. While the process can be challenging, the effort is extremely rewarding.
Databases
GU272 Memory Project
In 1838, the Maryland Jesuits sold more than 300 enslaved people to sugar plantations in southern Louisiana in order to raise funds for Georgetown University. The GU272 Memory Project is a collaboration between the descendants of the enslaved, the Georgetown Memory Project, and American Ancestors to provide a searchable online database of genealogical data for GU272 families.
United States 1850 Census (Slave Schedule)
Name index to the slave schedules listing slave owners and only age, gender and color data of the slaves in census states or territories in 1850. This was the first time that slave information was captured as a separate schedule.
Hampden County, MA: Black Families in Hampden County, 1650-1865
Hampden County, Massachusetts, was a significant center of African American life between the years 1650 and 1865. Its location at the “crossroads of New England,” close over the border from Connecticut to the south and across the wide Hudson River and a mountain range away from slavery in New York to the west, made Hampden County a haven for escaped slaves.
Pittsburgh, PA: Gaines Funeral Home Records, 1925-1934
The Gaines Funeral Home was established by George W. Gaines in 1919 in the historically African-American neighborhood of Homewood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most people in this database were buried in Monongahela Cemetery in Monongahela or Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
Archived Lectures
Research Tools & Tips
Researching Enslaved Ancestors
June 16, 2022
Uncovering enslaved ancestors prior to the end of slavery in 1870 can prove challenging. This session will dive deep into creating a research strategy and organizing records found.
Research Tools & Tips
Researching African American Ancestors in New England
February 17, 2022
This online lecture will highlight useful collections for researching African American ancestors including court and account records, local histories, original manuscripts, rare documents, and more.
Research Tools & Tips
Black Families of Revolutionary-Era Plymouth, MA
February 25, 2021
Plymouth’s Mayflower families have been well-studied, but the biographies of the Black men, women, and children who were enslaved by those families and their descendants are vastly under-represented in historical research.
Research Tools & Tips
Researching the Deep South
June 10, 2021
Learn about researching your ancestors from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and get tips and solutions for getting ahead.
Resources at NEHGS
Introducing the GU272
May 23, 2019
In 1838, Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved men, women, and children to plantations in Louisiana.
Research Tools & Tips
African American Resources at NEHGS
March 26, 2015
There are hundreds of resources available at NEHGS to assist you with researching African American ancestors: from published genealogies to local histories, original manuscripts and rare documents to online databases.
Archived Author Events
American Inspiration
Annette Gordon-Reed with On Juneteenth
Combining her own scholarship with personal and intimate reflection, Annette Gordon-Reed's new work On Juneteenth explores the history and complex public significance of this national holiday.
Moderated by Lisa Baldez
American Inspiration
Carole Emberton with To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Priscilla Joyner
Hear about the journey of Priscilla Joyner, whose life story was recorded in an oral history for the Federal Writers' Project, as well as the experiences of other formerly enslaved people who gained freedom at the end of the Civil War and built their lives in the shadow of the Jim Crow-era South.
American Inspiration
Linda Hirshman with The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation
American Inspiration Author Event | Join author Linda Hirshman and moderator L'Merchie Frazier for a discussion of Hirshman's new work chronicling abolition: the social spirit, people, and political alliances that changed American history.
American Inspiration
Skip Finley with Whaling Captains of Color: America's First Meritocracy
The history of whaling as an industry has been well-told in books, but few have shared the stories of whaling’s leaders of color, including those who joined the whaling industry as an alternative to life on the mainland and, especially, slavery.
American Inspiration
Anna Malaika Tubbs with The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
In this groundbreaking and essential debut work, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the stories of the women who raised and shaped three remarkable, heroic Americans: Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin.
American Inspiration
Tamara Payne with The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
This comprehensive and historic biography paints an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, setting him against the larger backdrop of American history.
American Inspiration
E. Dolores Johnson with Say I’m Dead : A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets and Love
Say I’m Dead unwinds the secrets and explores the experiences of a mixed race family in 20th century America.
American Inspiration
Gretchen Sorin with Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
Author Gretchen Sorin and Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Deputy Director of the The National Museum of African American History and Culture discuss Sorin’s new book and upcoming PBS documentary by Ric Burns, “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights.”
Online Event
Jewish and African American Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed
Why do Americans tend to separate their dead along communal lines rooted in faith, race, ethnicity, or social standing? Join us for a presentation by Dr. Kami Fletcher and Dr. Allan Amanik, editors of the anthology Till Death do us Part: American Ethnic Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed (University Press of Mississippi/Jackson, 2020).
Publications
Portable Genealogist
Portable Genealogist: African American Resources
$7.95
This guide is designed to help you through the challenging process of locating your African American ancestors.
Book
Four Families of St. Mary’s County
$69.95
By David Watson Kruger
Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
6 x 9 hardcover, 796 pages, illustrated