Familysearch released three more sets of Freedmens Bureau Field Office records recently.Now, the Bureau field office records for all southern states are online, free for viewing! Sign in at Familysearch.org, click on “Browse the records,” and then type “Freedmen” in the search box and the links for each state will appear. I cannot overemphasize how valuable […]
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Category: Posts 2014-2019
Remembering Jim Crow
I just finished reading the book Remembering Jim Crow, published in 2001. For those researching African-Americans, we spend a lot of time dealing with the complexity of slave research. I think we all need to pay more attention to the era of segregation. Most of us remember this era or have parents alive who do. […]
Sorting Same-Named People
I had an enslaved ancestor named Rezin Prather. I thought, “What an odd name. I’ll easily be able to find him in the records.” Guess what? It was a very popular name in Montgomery County, Maryland during the 19th century. There were numerous African-American “Rezin Prathers” floating around the county and in nearby Washington, D.C. […]
The Application for a Marriage License
This summer I discussed the little known record called Petition for Letters. This record often names all known heirs of a deceased individual. A similarly useful record is the Application for a Marriage License. We all seek out marriage records for our ancestors, but here’s one we may have missed. I have previously discussed the kinds […]
There Were No “Good” Slaveowners
I’m convinced that slave research and the research of slaveowners is some of the toughest genealogy research the field will ever see. This is a long post, but I hope you’ll read it all. I also recommend reading “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism,” by Edward Baptist. The book […]
Slave Distributions
One of the most important pieces of information those of us researching enslaved ancestors need to know is how the slaves are distributed after the owner’s death. If we’re lucky, there’s a will that tells us to whom each slave is bequeathed. Most of the time, there’s not. There are many wills that simply say […]