Heritage Album

African-American Genealogy: What are some good sources for family information?

I was half adoped, so I don't know much about my real dad, who I've never met, and who was mixed race. My mom's white family has lots of information, but the mixed -African-american, White, and/or Native American- family members on my dad's side seem to be impossible to learn about. After 30 years of not knowing anything, suddenly I received this small photo album in the mail with some pictures, and a small family tree of deceased relatives that only goes back to my great grandparents, all of which died in the 1930s and 1940s. I'd like to learn more. How do I trace them, or find out who my great-great grandparents may have been? How do I find out the maiden names of the great-grandmothers? I haven't even been able to find an actual birth date for my dad (or anyone), (my mother, who is in her 50s knows almost nothing about him) though it is suspected that he is around 80 years old! I'm so frustrated, I don't know where to start. How do I find the birth and death dates of everyone? My grandma, who supposedly died in 1988 according to the tree, was one of 12 children, but I can't find records of any of them. (I'm guessing they were born around 1900) How do 7 boys, whose last names don't change, and 5 girls disappear completely and leave few to no descendents or record of ever having existed? Ancestry.com has been basically useless. Are there better resources? What is the first step? If you know about African-American Genealogy, please help. It would mean so much to me. Complete strangers always ask me "What are you? Where are you from?" I want to be able to answer their question.

Public Comments

1. Ancestry is the place to be, you just have to trick the search engine into giving you what you are looking for. Since your family died in the 1930s and 1940s they can be found on census records. Don't fill in too much information in your searches. First put in the last name, US and the state they were born and see what comes up. Then go to the census link and chose 1930 and see which names come up. Add the county and click search again. To determine if it's your person, compair the wife's name and childrens names to what you have gathered so far. As far as maiden name, say you have her and her husband showing in 1930 in Jasper Co, GA. Go to 1920 Jasper Co, GA and just put in her first name and the year she was born (get that from the 1930). See how many daughters or granddaughters show up with this new query. Sometimes it's one. Then go to the online trees and see if anyone has searched this family. They might have her husband listed, which you can compare with your guy. Use the Social Security Index as much as you can as it will give the date of birth and death. Look for men in the WWI and WWI draft cards The problem with databases is that someone put the data into them so they transcribed some documents to do that. Well the documents, like census records, could have the name misspelled. Or the people, like in the south, went by their middle names and not their first names. Don't be strict in your interpretation on what comes up in your searches. If you have in your tree that David was born 1910 in Jasper Co, GA and you find David born 1909 in Baker Co, GA, this could be him. You can confirm by other searches but don't dissallow him just because the data isn't exact. Use wild cards in your searches. If I have and Elizabeth, I will put in Eliz* and for last name of Johnson I put in Johns* because it could be in the database as Johnston. I use the census and marriage/ death links the most. If you list your grandmother and her siblings names, we can search for you using the tricks we have learned along the way.
2. Sometimes the surnames are spelled wrong on census records. I'd keep looking until you find them, I know it sometimes it seems to take forever. If your dad is 80 years old then there should be a 1930 census record for him. If he isn't that old yet, the 1940 census will be released in a couple years anyway. You can check military and draft registrations too. It took me a while to find census records for some of the common names in my family like Smith, but I found most of them eventually. However, if you do know your grandmother's name and when she died you can look her up in the social security death records. Sometimes you can find local death records too. These sometimes have information on the parents. There are some birth records that are on ancestry.com that have more information on the family (like Texas and California have mother's maiden name). If you can find out where she was born and the date, then you can try to get her birth certificate from the city/county where she was born. You would have to write the city she was born in for this and probably pay a fee, but you might come up with more information that way. Sometimes you don't get all the information, my boyfriend's dad was adopted and his birth certificate just says illegitimate with no father's name, but they managed to track down the mom's family. Anyway, good luck!
3. First, start with what you "know" about your dad's family, compiling information from birth certificates, marriage licenses, and other written records if you have them. At this point, you can turn to United States Census records, which are currently available through the 1930 US Census. African Americans first started appearing separately in the Census in 1870, so with any luck, you can trace your dad's family back 130 years. You might also see if your local public library has a membership in Ancestry.com, which may or may not have access to Social Security records, marriage licenses, and state death certificates to find your paternal grandmother's date of birth and death. If you prefer, post your paternal grandmother's name and date and place of death to the the best of your knowledge, and I or another person with access to Ancestry.com will try to look her up on line.
4. Try the suggestions at http://locatelovedones.blogspot.com/