Archives

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Evaluating Evidence

• Never Trust Only One Source
• Two Men Become One: Identity
• Those Doggone Nicknames
• Do You Know How to Use Indirect Evidence?
• About That Mulatto…
• Analyzing a Death Certificate
• The Community Reveals the Family
• Postcards Provide Clues to Family
• Fooled Again: The Green Barnes Family
• When Original Sources Are Wrong
• Beware the Death Certificate
• Prove Identity: Don’t Just Match Names
• Never Rely On Just the Census
• Verify Your Oral History
• Follow the Witness: They May Have the Answer
• Are Your Assumptions Leading You Astray?
• Extracting Every Clue From the Census
• Tips on Using World War Draft Registrations
• Sorting Same-Named People
• What is Genealogy “Methodology”?
• Cluster Research Reunites Sisters
• I Found You, Mary Neal: Analysis Uncovers An Identity
• Marriage Records: Look Out for Multiple Marriages
• Is The Wife Really The Mother Of All Those Children?
• Why We Need To Cite Our Sources
• Shaky Leaves and the Importance of Thoroughness
• Formulating Research Questions
• Analyzing and Correlating Records
• The 1880 Donut Hole
• Do You Have an Artificial Brick Wall?

Census Records

• Those Doggone Nicknames
• She Might Not Be a Widow
• Understanding the Slave Community
• Census Tricks: Not Lodgers or Boarders but Relatives
• About That Mulatto…
• Do You Use A Census Tracker?
• The Community Reveals the Family
• A Rare Census Find
• Fooled Again: The Green Barnes Family
• When Original Sources Are Wrong
• Prove Identity: Don’t Just Match Names
• Never Rely On Just the Census
• Extracting Every Clue From the Census
• Sorting Same-Named People
• I Found You, Mary Neal: Analysis Uncovers An Identity
• Marriage Records: Look Out for Multiple Marriages
• Is The Wife Really The Mother Of All Those Children?
• Analyzing and Correlating Records
• The 1880 Donut Hole
• The Definition of Black: Race and the Census
• Matilda: Back Another Generation
• The Criticality of the 1870 Census
• Martha Simpson: Right Under My Nose
• Lie To Me: Inaccurate Records
• Untangling Matildas: Brick Wall Crashes Down
• One Step Closer in Alabama: the Fendricks Family
• Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
• Phillip Holt is Not Dead After All
• Parents Often Move With Their Children
• Black Newspapers Break a Brick Wall!

Vital Records

• Those Doggone Nicknames
• Finding That Maiden Name
• Analyzing a Death Certificate
• Murder in the Family
• Fooled Again: The Green Barnes Family
• When Original Sources Are Wrong
• Beware the Death Certificate
• Follow the Witness: They May Have the Answer
• Sorting Same-Named People
• The Application for a Marriage License
• I Found You, Mary Neal: Analysis Uncovers An Identity
• Marriage Records: Look Out for Multiple Marriages
• Shaky Leaves and the Importance of Thoroughness
• Matilda: Back Another Generation
• A White Father: Direct Evidence
• Lie To Me: Inaccurate Records
• Untangling Matildas: Brick Wall Crashes Down
• One Step Closer in Alabama: the Fendricks Family
• Collateral Research: Research All Siblings
• Two Death Certificates: One Person
• Phillip Holt is Not Dead After All
• Working Women: Social Security Applications
• Marriage Records: What Exactly Are You Looking At?
• Wayne County, TN Freedmen’s Marriages
• County-Level Death Records
• Biblically Speaking

Probate Records

• Enslaved Ancestor Found Using 1914 Ad
• Examining Slaves in Inventories
• Never Rely On Just the Census
• Henry’s Slaves: One in a Million
• Slave Distributions
• Probate Records: Petition for Letters
• Marriage Records: Look Out for Multiple Marriages
• Estate Inventories: Peek Into Their Lives
• Tracking Mason Garrard Through Slavery
• A White Father: Direct Evidence
• Always Check the Original
• John W. Holt’s Will
• Tracing Enslaved Ancestors Through Probate
• Slave Research: Search the Slaveowner’s Wife’s Family Too
• The Joy of Probate
• Using Charts in Your Genealogy Research
• Finding the Slaveowner: Hyman Family

Slave Research

• Enslaved Ancestor Found Using 1914 Ad
• Finding That Maiden Name
• Don’t Go Looking for Slave Records
• A Valuable Strategy for Civil War Pension Research
• Slave Surnames “To Save Their Lives”
• Free Blacks and Re-Enslavement
• Do You Know How to Use Indirect Evidence?
• Understanding the Slave Community
• Examining Slaves in Inventories
• Revisiting the Slave Interviews
• Slave Mortgages
• Freedmens Bureau Narrative Reports
• How Many Slaveowners Were in the South?
• Most Slaves Lived on Large Plantations
• Africans Enslaved Other Africans: NOT
• Slaves in Pre-Marital Agreements
• A Rare Census Find
• Teaching the Hard History of Slavery
• The Long, Long Hold of Slavery
• Slaves are in the FAN Club, Too
• What Did Slavery Look Like?
• Finding State Laws About Slaves and Free Blacks
• The Complexity of Slave Surnames
• More Suggestions for White Slaveholder Descendants
• Suggestions For the White Descendants of Slaveholders
• Freedmen’s Bureau Record Uncovers Likely Slaveowner
• A Slave’s Letter to His Former Master
• Thomas S. Sudler Account Book
• The “Lost Friends” Slavery Database
• How Were Slaves Sold?

Slaveowner Research

• Understanding the Slave Community
• Slave Mortgages
• How Many Slaveowners Were in the South?
• Slaves in Pre-Marital Agreements
• Slaves are in the FAN Club, Too
• More Suggestions for White Slaveholder Descendants
• Suggestions For the White Descendants of Slaveholders
• Freedmen’s Bureau Record Uncovers Likely Slaveowner
• Thomas S. Sudler Account Book
• There Were No “Good” Slaveowners
• Slave Distributions
• Slave Research in Bibles
• Freedmens Bureau Labor Contracts
• Documenting the Slaveowner in Your Genealogy Software
• The Crown Jewel: Civil War Pensions, Part 2
• The Crown Jewel: Black Civil War Soldiers and Pension Records
• Tracking Mason Garrard Through Slavery
• Finding the Garrard Slaveholder
• Mind of the Slaveowner: Runaway Ads
• Tracing Enslaved Ancestors Through Probate
• Records of Antebellum Southern Plantations
• Ex-Slave Pension Records
• Maps Lead the Way To Better Understanding
• Slave Research: Search the Slaveowner’s Wife’s Family Too
• Historic Trust Inventories: Search the Land, Find the People
• Researching the Slaveowner in Online Books
• Records About the Enslaved in D.C.
• Southern Claims Commission
• Giles Holt, the Slaveowner
• Effie Fendricks and Building a Case for the Slaveowner

Reconstruction Era Research

• Understanding the Slave Community
• Finding Sharecroppers in Deeds
• Freedmens Bureau Narrative Reports
• Memorial to Lynching
• The Long, Long Hold of Slavery
• Freedmen’s Bureau Record Uncovers Likely Slaveowner
• The Ku Klux Klan Hearings
• Perry Simpson Found in Freedmen’s Bureau Records
• Researching U.S. Colored Troops
• Slaves Search For Their Families in Newspapers
• Freedmens Bureau Jewels: “They are a rather worthless couple.”
• Remembering Jim Crow
• Freedmens Bureau Labor Contracts
• Lemos Slaves Reunited
• Voter Registration Records
• Freedmens Bureau Records Online
• Freedmans Bank Records, Part 2
• Freedmans Bank Records, Part 1
• The Crown Jewel: Black Civil War Pensions, Part 3
• The Terror of Reconstruction
• John W. Holt’s Will
• Met His Fate by the Rope Route: Lynching
• Criminals In The Family
• Alabama Convict Records
• Ex-Slave Pension Records
• A Strategy for Researching Freedmens Bureau Records
• Black Farmers
• Ancestor Found in Southern Claims Commission Records
• Southern Claims Commission
• Wayne County, TN Freedmen’s Marriages

Records, Resources and Tools

• The Tough Stuff of History for Genealogists
• Enslaved Ancestor Found Using 1914 Ad
• Those Doggone Nicknames
• Why You Must Use JSTOR In Your Genealogy
• Finding That Maiden Name
• A Valuable Strategy for Civil War Pension Research
• Slave Mortgages
• Finding Sharecroppers in Deeds
• What Did Slavery Look Like?
• Fall In Love With Libraries Again
• Freedmen’s Bureau Record Uncovers Likely Slaveowner
• Deed Record Bonanza
• The Ku Klux Klan Hearings
• Thomas S. Sudler Account Book
• Perry Simpson Found in Freedmen’s Bureau Records
• DNA Bombshell: John Smith Origins Uncovered
• Who’s Your Daddy? Bastardy Records
• Follow the Witness: They May Have the Answer
• A Walk Through County Court Minutes
• Researching U.S. Colored Troops
• Are You Using Your Genealogical and Historical Society?
• Tips on Using World War Draft Registrations
• Freedmens Bureau Jewels: “They are a rather worthless couple.”
• The Application for a Marriage License
• Slave Research in Community Papers
• Slave Distributions
• Slave Research in Bibles
• Freedmens Bureau Labor Contracts
• Documenting the Slaveowner in Your Genealogy Software
• Voter Registration Records

Court Records

• Supreme Court Records
• Free Blacks and Re-Enslavement
• Slaves in Pre-Marital Agreements
• Who’s Your Daddy? Bastardy Records
• A Walk Through County Court Minutes
• Finding the Garrard Slaveholder
• Criminals In The Family
• Alabama Convict Records
• Digital Library on American Slavery
• Finding the Slaveowner: Hyman Family
• Court Records Rock

Tips and Training

• Proving Relationships: One Strategy
• Those Doggone Nicknames
• Upcoming Deed Records Lecture!
• Finding That Maiden Name
• 3 Reasons Why Your Research Is Stuck
• Do You Know How to Use Indirect Evidence?
• Do You Use A Census Tracker?
• The Community Reveals the Family
• Finding State Laws About Slaves and Free Blacks
• Searching Ancestry Databases: Things You Should Know
• Never Rely On Just the Census
• Verify Your Oral History
• Deed Record Bonanza
• Follow the Witness: They May Have the Answer
• Are Your Assumptions Leading You Astray?
• Genealogy Resource Recommendations
• Slave Research: Four Things You Need to Know
• What is Genealogy “Methodology”?
• Why We Need To Cite Our Sources
• Shaky Leaves and the Importance of Thoroughness
• Formulating Research Questions
• Analyzing and Correlating Records
• 7 Ways to Jumpstart Your Research
• Cluster Research at the Cemetery
• Do You Have an Artificial Brick Wall?
• Researching Free Blacks
• The Definition of Black: Race and the Census
• The Criticality of the 1870 Census
• Always Check the Original
• Collateral Research: Research All Siblings

Writing Your History

• Two New Books Worth Your Time
• Why We Need To Cite Our Sources
• Slavery Studies
• Estate Inventories: Peek Into Their Lives
• The Artifacts of Our History: Part 2
• The Artifacts of Our History: Part 1
• Extension Service Records
• Ideas for Writing Your Family History
• Historic Trust Inventories: Search the Land, Find the People
• Write Up Your Family History!
• Published Slave Narratives
• Ancestors: What Were Their Lives Like?
• University Theses and Dissertations: Hidden Treasures

Newspapers

• Murder in the Family
• Slaves Search For Their Families in Newspapers
• Cluster Research Reunites Sisters
• Lemos Slaves Reunited
• Community History in Newspapers
• Mind of the Slaveowner: Runaway Ads
• Met His Fate by the Rope Route: Lynching
• Black Newspapers Break a Brick Wall!

Cemeteries

• Cluster Research Reunites Sisters
• Shaky Leaves and the Importance of Thoroughness
• Cluster Research at the Cemetery
• One Step Closer in Alabama: the Fendricks Family
• Alex Haley and His Wife Queen
• A Cemetery Adventure in Enfield, North Carolina

Bible Records

• Cluster Research Reunites Sisters
• Slave Research in Bibles
• Martha Simpson: Right Under My Nose
• Walter Hughes Family Bible: Maysville, KY
• Biblically Speaking