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How To Start Researching Your African American Female Ancestors
How to start your genealogy research into your African American female ancestors. Researching female ancestors is challenging, but possible! Genealogy research comes with many challenges, especially with regard to researching certain subsets of our ancestors. Once such group is women. Researching our female ancestors can require even more effort when it comes to those who are of African descent. In this post, I’ll offer a few suggestions for documenting the lives of our African American female ancestors. Like researching any female of days gone by, we often begin with learning everything we can about the men in their lives. Often, women will be mentioned in the records of their husbands,…
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Types of Information in a Runaway Slave Advertisements
As I have searched out unusual sources for physical descriptions of our ancestors, I came across UNCG’s collection of Runaway Slave Advertisements collection and wanted to share them with you. Slavery was a difficult time period in history and continues to evoke strong feelings. Tracing African American genealogy can be difficult both in the research itself and the emotions it evokes. Still, their stories are important. UNCG’s Digital Library of American Slavery is a great resource for African American researchers. Let’s take a look at the types of information you can find in a runaway slave advertisement.
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Using Freedmen’s Bureau Records Records in Genealogy Research
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands is often simply referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Often as genealogists, we are aware of the Freedmen’s Bureau, but do not fully realize the potential it holds for our genealogy research. Let’s take a closer look.
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Using the Slave Narratives for African American Research
Welcome to guest blogger Taneya Koonce! Over the next two weeks Lisa is highlighting information relevant to African American genealogy research. I’m honored that Lisa thought to include me! As many may know, African American genealogy research presents unique challenges given the history behind the institution of slavery and the effects it had on enslaved families; particularly for families that were separated from each other. Thus, resources that help provide context for family structures can be especially valuable. One resource to use for researching those formerly enslaved is a collection of interviews conducted in the 1930s as a project of the Works Progress Administration – Slaves Narrative from the Federal Writers…
