glad to see this post as been wondering! if my ancestor impregnated or got impregnated by...an african american,i want to inc that african american in my family & her or his relatives...blood is blood baby! how can we not?? but yes records should be coded just to help us all.. next question...how can we possibly know if african american has same name due to blood relation as opposed to fact of slavery being that sometimes our ancestors played God or king & decided to name slaves rather than allow their parents to do it?? plus some slaves & "owners" actually liked each other so african americans willingly took or gave themselves same names? so confusing!!! to me,racism is ridiculous in that in biblical times everyone enslaved anyone regardless of color as did ship captains in colonial eras if they found you drunk & needed crew!!! i was shocked to learn that my ancestors had slaves...shows how little i paid attention to history as a student!!! i felt england was only country guilty...that irish were done as wrong by english as africans were & that irish came here to late to be guilty...geez,i am learning a lot!!! not just genealogy but history,geography...