African American family research is similar to all genealogy. You begin with what is known and work backwards in time, contacting relatives, collecting family information, and obtaining birth, marriage, and death certificates. You locate your ancestors on the 1930, 1920, 1910, 1900, 1880, and 1870 censuses. The censuses provide clues to finding preceding generations.
An important step in any genealogical research project is to locate "how-to" books and articles. One book mentioned in most African American bibliographies is Dee Parmer Woodtor's Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African American Genealogy and Historical Identity
The National Genealogical Society's Quarterly magazine features model articles on genealogical methodology including African American research.
Genealogists for any ethnic group should locate study/support groups. The Forum Board invites members to develop plans and to implement study groups that meet in the Forum's Higgens Conference Room. Currently, there are groups for several computer interests, Illinois, Canadian, and Irish. Any member of the Forum is welcome to start an African American study group, and it is hoped that an African American Interest Group will be formed in the future.
AfriGeneas is an Internet site for African American genealogy. Here you can find the AfriGeneas mail list, the AfriGeneas message boards and daily and weekly genealogy chats. The site hosts an interactive guide for beginners. URL: http://www.afrigeneas.com/
Bardes, Eleanor Dooks. Hamilton County, Ohio Burial Records: Volume 9, part 1, Union Baptist African American Cemetery.Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997. 305.96/H218 Cem.
Bardes, Eleanor Dooks. Hamilton County, Ohio Burial Records: Volume 9, part 2, Union Baptist African American Cemetery. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997. 305.96/H218 Cem.
Bennett, Lerone, Jr. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. New York; Penguin Books, 1984. 305.96/B471.
Berlin, Ira. Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South. New York: Pantheon books, 1974. 305.96/B515.
Black Studies: A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm Publications. Washington, DC: GSA, 1984. 305.96/N277.
Blassingame, John W. Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. 305.96/B644.
Blockson, Charles. Black Genealogy. Prentice Hall, 1977. 305.96/B651.
Brown, Richard D., ed. Slavery in American Society. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co., 1969. 973 A000.
Burroughs, Tony. Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. 305.96/B277.
Carothers, Bettie Sterling. Maryland Slave Owners and Superintendents, 1798: Volume 1. Lutherville, MD: The Author, 1974.
Carothers, Bettie Sterling. Maryland Slave Owners and Superintendents, 1798: Volume 2. Lutherville, MD: The Author, 1975. 975.2 A000/Land.
Carvalho, Joseph, III. Black Families in Hampden County, Massachusetts, 1650-1855. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1984. 974.4/H229/Ethnic.
Chambers, Lucille Arcola. America's Tenth Man: A Pictorial Review of 1/10 of a Nation Presenting the Negro Contribution to American Life Today. New York: Twayne Publishing, In., 1947. 305.96/C444
Clem, Dee. Tracing African American Roots. Las Vegas, NV: Gator Publishing, 1999. 305.96/C625.
Dorson, Richard M. American Negro Folktales. Greenwich, CT: A Fawcett Premier Book, 1957. 305.96/D718.
Drimmer, Melvin, ed. Black History: a Reappraisal. New York: Anchor books, 1969. 305.96/D779.
Drotning, Phillip T. An American Traveler's Guide to Black History. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1968. 305.96/D787.
Fears, Mary L. Jackson. Slave Ancestral Research: It's Something Else. Bowie MD: Heritage Books, 1995. Catalog number: 305.96/F280.
Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom (A History of Negro Americans), 3rd ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1969. 305.96/F832.
Franklin, Joseph. All Through the Night: The History of Spokane Black Americans, 1860-1940. Fairfield, WA: Ye Galleon Press, 1989. 979.7/S762/Ethnic.
Gutman, Herbert G. Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1750-1925. New York: Pantheon Books, 1976. 305.96/G984.
Haley, Alex. Roots, The Saga of an American Family. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1976. 305.96/H168.
Handlin, Oscar. Uprooted: The Great Migrations That Made American People. Little, Brown & Co, 1951. 305.96/H236.
Henritze, Barbara K. Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1995. 305.96/H518
Hodges, Graham Russell. Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1996. 305.96/H688.
Hopkins, Margaret Lail. Index to the Tithables of Loudoun County, Virginia and to Slaveholders and Slaves 1758-1786. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991. Library Catalog number: 975.5/L8862/Court.
Howell, Barbara Thompson. How to Trace Your African American Roots. 305.96/H859.
Katz, William Loren. Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage. New York: Athenaeum Books, 1986. 970.1/K19.
Katz, William Loren. Black People Who Made the Old West. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1997. 305.96/A000/History.
Katz, William Loren. The Black West. Third Ed. Seattle, WA: Open Hand Publishing, 1987. 305.96/K19.
Lawson, Sandra M. Generations Past: A Selected List of Sources for Afro-American Genealogical Research. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1988. 305.96/L425.
Leckie, William H. The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. 305.96/L461
Litwack, Leon F. Been in the Storm So Long; The Aftermath of Slavery. 305.96/L782
McLagan, Elizabeth. Peculiar Paradise: a History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940. Portland, OR: Georgian Press, 1980. 979.5/A000/Ethnic-AfAm.
McPherson, James M. The Negro's Civil War. New York: Vintage Books. 305.96/M172.
Mead, Jeffrey B. Chains Unbound: Slave Emancipations In The Town Of Greenwich, Connecticut. Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 1995. 974.6/F19/G816.
Meier, August. From Plantation to Ghetto: An Interpretive History of American Negroes. New York: Hill & Want, 1966. 305.96/M511.
Newman, Debra L. List of Free Black Heads of Families in the First Census of the United States, 1790. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1974. 305.96/N552.
Olmsted, Frederick Law. Slave States. New York: Capricorn Books, 1959. 305.96/O51.
Oregon Directory of Organizations of Color. Portland, OR: McKenzie River Gathering, 1995. 979.5/A000/Ethnic-AfAm.
Resh, Richard, ed. Black America: Confrontation & Accommodation in the Twentieth Century. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co., 1969. 305.96/R433.
Schatz, Walter. Directory of Afro-American Resources. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1970. 305.96/S312.
Sweig, Donald, ed. Registrations of Free Negroes: Commencing Sept. Court 1822, Book No. 2 & Register of Free Blacks 1935 Book No. 3 being the full text of the two extant volumes, 1822-1861, of registrations of free blacks now in the county Courthouse, Fairfax, Virginia. Fairfax, VA: Fairfax County Historical Commission, 1977. 975.5/F167.
Tannenbaum, Frank. Slave and Citizen: The Negro in the Americas. New York: Vintage Books, 1946. 305.96/T166.
Taylor, Quintard. African American Experience: A History of Black Americans from 1619 to 1890. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, 1996. 305.96/T245.
Teacher's Manual for Kentucky's Black Heritage, The Role Of The Black People In The History. Frankfort, KY: Commonwealth of Kentucky, 1971. 976.9/A000/Ethnic.
Thackery, David T. Bibliography of African American Family History at the Newberry Library. Chicago, IL: The Newberry Library, 1993. 305.96/T363.
Turpin, Joan. Register of Black, Mulatto, and Poor Persons in Four Ohio Counties, 1791-1861. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1985. 977.1/A000/Court.
Weinstein, Allen & Frank O. American Negro Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. 305.96/W424.
Whitney, Harold Coleman. Ancestors and Descendants of Theodore Roosevelt Whitney (1902-1979): Profile of an African American Family. Baltimore, MD: Gateway Press, 1993. 929.2/Whi-21.
Wilham, Kathleen. 1850 Shelby County, Missouri Census with Slave and Mortality Schedules. Shelbyville, MO: Wilham & Corbin, 1985. 977.8/S544.
Woodtor, Dee Parmer. Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African American Genealogy and Historical Identity. New York: Random House, 1999. 305.96/W898.
Wright, Louis B. Culture on the Moving Frontier. New York: Harper & Row, 1955. 305.96/W951.
Burroughs, Tony. Black Biographies, Autobiographies, and Family Histories. Hobart, IN: Repeat Performance. Audio Tape.
Burroughs, Tony. Six Phases of African American Genealogy. Hobart, IN: Repeat Performance, 2001. Audio Tape.
Walker, James Dent. African American Resources for Genealogists. Los Angeles, CA: Repeat Performance, 1991. Audio Tape.
Family Tree Maker's Family Archives: African Americans in the 1870 Census. Novato, CA: Broderbund, 2000. CD 100-011.
Slave Narratives. Orem Utah: My Family.com, 2000. CD100-012
Freedman's Savings Bank Records. CD 973-109
Slaves were enumerated separately during the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Unfortunately, most schedules do not give personal names. Typically, individuals were numbered, and their age and sex was enumerated.
1850 Georgia slave schedules: Newton, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Rabun, Randolph, and Richmond.
1850 Kentucky slave schedules: Jessamine through Woodford Counties
1850 Mississippi slave schedules, Jones, Kemper, Lafayette, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leeke, Lownds, Madison Counties.
1850 Mississippi slave schedules, Tishomingo, Tunica, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Wilkinson, Winston.
1850 Missouri slave schedules, Shelby County.
1850 North Carolina slave schedules, Alamance to Camden counties.
1860 Arkansas Slave Schedules. Arkansas, Askley, Benton, Bradley, Calhoun, Carroll, Chicot, Clark, Columbia, Conway, Craighead, Crawford, Crittenden, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hemstead, Hot Spring, Independence, Izard, Jackson & Jefferson Counties.
1860 Delaware slave schedules, entire state.
1860 Kentucky slave schedules, Adair - Casey counties.
1860 Maryland census population schedules: Allegheny - Howard counties and slave schedule.