African American Archives

African American Genealogy Research

In honor of Black History Month and the contributions made by African Americans, here are curated files of African American Family History resources. These have been set up in digitally tabbed file folders--just select a tab and the file contents will be displayed. LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Kunta Kinte of the 1977 "Roots" miniseries) gave a powerful keynote address at last year's RootsTech. Maybe you had to be there or maybe you had to have lived in America in the 70s when almost every household, probably with an average of ten TV channels, tuned in to watch Roots. When parents were torn between "is this too graphic for the kids" and "is this too important to not let them see?" Burton summed it up perfectly when he said 'one family's story changed how America saw slavery' and that every story mattered. Black History Month celebrates all African Americans. From the first African American president to the most humble slave narrat…

Family History Month Day 17 – Visit AfriGeneas

On Day 17 of Family History Month 2017, visit AfriGeneas and see what they have to offer! AfriGeneas is a free website for anyone with African ancestry to help them find the resources they need for their family history research. Many of the collections are uploaded by volunteers and you'll need to register with AfriGeneas if you want to volunteer and upload files. AfriGeneas also has message boards/forums for exchanging information. Some collections you can explore at AfriGeneas include: African American Death Records - these are files uploaded by AfriGeneas volunteers and the volunteer's email is provided. African American Census Records African American Library Records-this includes general research guides and articles as well as records by state African American Marriage Records African American Photograph Collection-these are user submitted photos and are in alphabetical order African American Slave Data Collection-can be browsed by Surname

Fee or Free African American Newspapers

African American newspapers are one place to look for news about black communities that wasn't always reported in the popular press. It's possible to find names, marriages, and births and deaths in these collections. (And for African American research you won't want to limit yourself to strictly African American newspapers, just don't overlook them.) I'm easily distracted in newspaper research and find myself just reading random articles which isn't a very efficient use of time, but I have one relative I could only trace through newspapers. He was in the theater circuit and moved from city to city and lied about his age. I found his family by following him through newspapers. They're a valuable resource but it's easy to get sidetracked and just soak up the historical context. That's my disclaimer if you lose a day or more in newspapers. Fee/Subscription African American Newspapers Accessible Archives Accessible Archives has 9 African American newspapers …