TIP #509 - HELP FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCHERS Many tips back, I covered the difficulties involved in doing research on African American ancestry. Thankfully, year by year and often inch by inch, more records are becoming available offering hope to what once seemed like an impossible task. In this review, I'd like to give some pointers on where to look for data, both off and on line. The difficulties? Obviously the change of surnames. As a slave was sold from person to person, they normally took the last name of the current owner, if they used a surname at all. Unless one can find who all the owners were, this puts up a big brick wall. Secondly, lack of records kept by the white owners. In many families, the owners did keep good records, many times in their family Bibles. But others did not. But let's take a stab of records we can look at in printed form, and then move to the internet. 1 - Vital Statistics. In Kentucky, records called vital statistics were kept for certain years between 1852-1910 before birth and death records were kept. This are invaluable if your ancestor was born during the years kept. Information shown includes the name of the owner, the name of the child, many times the name of the mother, date of birth, whether black or mulatto, sex, living or dead. Many counties have these in printed form; the microfilm is available from the Kentucky Department of Archives and Libraries. 2 - White wills. Many times it is possible to trace a slave through the wills of the white owner. Slaves were very important to the owner of course and their values were figured in the estate value. Strong young men brought the most money since they could work harder; young healthy women were also appraised highly for their productive ability. It is a terrible shame but there is often a glimmer of hope when a will makes specific provisions for the slaves. Many owners freed their slaves immediately; many divided up the slaves during family members with orders that families should not be broken apart. In the majority of wills the slave's names and sometimes ages were given. The closer to the 1870 census one gets, the easier it is to find them later. Many stayed with their former owners or on property which he had provided for them in the will. Some former owners made provisions for the slaves to be taken to where they could be free. But of course, to some, slaves were just property to be bought, sold, or rented out. In many wills I have read, it is heartening when the owner made special provisions for the older slaves. Statements such as "they have served our family well, they are now unable to help themselves, they are to be provided for and cared for as one of the family." 3 - African American wills. Many freed slaves or those who were already free, did make their own wills. Normally the expressions was used "a free man of colour." 4 - Deeds. As in #3 above, many free African Americans deeded land. Sometimes the land had been deeded to them by their former owner, many times, they bought and sold on their own. Although there is not a log of genealogical information in a deed, it might show the wife's name, give a location where the land was located, or some clue as to their lives. 5 - White and African American church minute books. As noted in the previous tip, one can find a wealth of information in church records. Slaves were allowed membership in the white churches before emancipation and their names are recorded in the minute books, many of which have been transcribed. They might be shown as Mary belonging to Mrs. Jones .... but if they were still members there after emancipation, you can then pick them up in the African American churches which started immediately. 6 - Cemetery transcriptions and obituaries. Many counties, hopefully a majority, have published cemetery books and included the African American burial grounds. This will give you the name and dates of those buried there and you can find family groupings. If you can find an obituary or a funeral home record on the individual, you will have all the relatives, possibly the cause of death, age, place of birth, etc. 7 - Newspapers. If you live in the town of your ancestors, and the old newspapers are still available, pull up a chair and start reading. Depending on the town, some newspapers will go back a great distance, many will not be available until after the Civil War. 8 - Church Associational Minutes. Going back to church records, many denominations have a form of "associational" meeting annually and publish a booklet including information on the churches in attendance, the "messengers" who attended from that church, deaths during the year and many times biographies and photographs of the members. Many of these have been preserved and with some detective work, you might be able to find copies of this at the church they attended. Now, let's move to the computer world. In the beginning, there were no African American records to be found on the internet. Today, it is an ever-expanding field. Some Kentucky sources would include: 1 - my favorite site is found at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyafamer/ and is entitled Kentucky African American Griots. A griot was the African story teller, the individual of each tribe which was responsible for preserving the history of, genealogies of and tales of their tribe. Two wonderful ladies have established this new site which is growing by leaps and bounds, just teaming with African American source records for Kentucky. I have been so thankful to send them materials on south central Kentucky and they are always looking for more information. Their site is broken down into counties with varying information for each county including: births, deaths, church records and histories, biographies, census records, photographs, cemetery records, deeds, wills, Bible records, etc. There are many counties for which they do not as yet have any information and if you have anything you can provide, it would be appreciated. Their contact email addresses are shown on the pages as well as a biography on them; I can recommend both gals as sincere, devoted researchers who are trying to be modern day griots. 2 - Kentucky African American Message Board (rootsweb): http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.ethnic.afam.ky 3 - http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Ethnic-African/KY-AfricaAmer.html (Kentucky African American Mailing list - rootsweb). 4 - http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/KY/misc.html#KY-SLAVES (Kentucky Slaves Mailing list - rootsweb) 5 - http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/KY/misc.html#KY-FREEDMEN (Kentucky Freedmen Mailing list - rootsweb) There are many more links shown on the Griots page - slave narratives from Kentucky, the underground railroad, African Americans in the military; a full day's reading plus. I hope this will motivate our African American listers to keep trying. The end results are wonderful even if the way is hard. And - in closing: What if you can't find all you want to on your ancestors? Then don't get discouraged! Start out by recording your own family records. Talk to your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Write down their memories, stories they have heard told from their ancestors. Oral tradition is wonderful! Maybe there is an exaggeration here or there, or a memory that is not quite perfect. But it is THEIR story, their memories. Save them. Encourage your children to become interested in their family tree. Most churches have Martin Luther King Day services including history of some of the people in your community or church. Start photo albums, clip out newspaper articles. Let history begin with you. The coming generations will bless you for your caring. (c) Copyright 30 Sept 2004, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved Colonel Sandi Gorin SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/