Researching African American Ancestors: Books

This edition contains an exhaustive list of all of the original and microfilmed records for each North Carolina county that are housed in the State Archives as of March 1, 2009. Describes more than 13,000 bound volumes, 22,000 boxes of loose records, and 24,000 reels of microfilm.

Trace, document, record, and write your family's history with this easy-to-read, step-by-step authoritative guide. Finally, here is the fun, easy-to-use guide that African Americans have been waiting for since Alex Haley published Roots more than twenty-five years ago. Written by the leading African American professional genealogist in the United States who teaches and lectures widely, Black Roots highlights some of the special problems, solutions, and sources unique to African Americans. Based on solid genealogical principles and designed for those who have little or no experience researching their family's past, but valuable to any genealogist, this book explains everything you need to get started, including: where to search close to home, where to write for records, how to make the best use of libraries and the Internet, and how to organize research, analyze historical documents, and write the family history. THIS GUIDE ALSO INCLUDES: real case histories that illustrate the unique challenges posed to African Americans and how they were solved more than 100 illustrations and photographs of actual documents and records you're likely to encounter when tracing your family tree samples of all the worksheets and forms you'll need to keep your research in order a list of the traps even experienced researchers often fall into that hamper their research

Although the search for African American ancestry prior to the Civil War is challenging, the difficulties are not always insurmountable. Finding Your African American Ancestors takes you through your ancestors' transition from slavery to freedom, and helps you find them using the federal census, plantation records, and other helpful sources. The book also considers ways to locate runaway slave advertisements, to identify an ancestor's military regiment, and to access the valuable information from The Freedman's Savings and Trust records.

Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts is an electronic, searchable archive of primary source materials at Virginia repositories that relate to the Afro- American experience. Collections include the papers, letters, and records of individuals and families; documents of towns, cities, and counties; official state records; church records; material from the Works Projects Administration Folklore Collection; college and university archives; and a variety of other types of documents of importance for understanding the Afro-American experience.
Online at http://www.upress.virginia.edu/plunkett/mfp.html

Quick facts -- The great migration -- Basic research sources -- Reconstruction-era record sources -- Civil War record sources -- Free African Americans in the North and South -- Researching enslaved ancestors -- Online resources -- Further reading

Finding a Place Called Home is a comprehensive guide to finding your African-American roots and tracing your family tree. Written in a clear, conversational, and accessible style, this book shows you, step-by-step, how to find out who your family was and where they came from. Beginning with your immediate family, Dr. Dee Parmer Woodtor gives you all the necessary tools to dig up your past: how to interview family members; how to research your past using census reports, slave schedules, property deeds, and courthouse records; and how to find these records. Using the Internet for genealogical research is also discussed. This book helps you find your family tree, and helps place it in the context of the garden of African-American people. As you learn how to find your own history, you learn the history of all Africans in the Americas, including the Caribbean, and how to benefit from a new understanding of your family's history, and your people's. Finding a Place Called Home also discusses the growing family reunion movement and other ways to celebrate newly discovered family history. It takes us back, step-by-step, including: Methods of searching and interpreting records, such as marriage, birth, and death certificates, census reports, slave schedules, church records, and Freedmen's Bureau information.

v. 1. Introduction, Alexander/Guilford Counties
v. 2. Halifax/Sampson Counties
v. 3. Stokes/Wilson Counties, index

Series of 9 volumes.
These pages contain a wealth of information transcribed from obscure and fragile, original documents housed at the North Carolina State Archives. Every attempt has been made to transcribe the complete collection, including partial or fragmented documents.
Chowan County: 929.3 N8cho B995n
McDowell County: 929.3 N8m B995n
Iredell County: 929.3 N8i B995n
Hyde and Beaufort Counties: 929.3 N8 B995n4
Stokes and Yadkin Counties: 929.3 N8 B995n3
Mecklenburg, Gaston, and Union Counties: 929.3 N8 B995n2
Burke, Lincoln, and Rowan Counties: 929.3 N8 B995n
Pasquotank County: 929.3 N8pa B995n
Perquimans County: 929.3 N8per B995n

4 volumes available.
I. Cases from the courts of England, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
II. Cases from the courts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
III. Cases from the courts of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
IV. Cases from the courts of New England, the middle states, and the District of Columbia.

Designed for both professional and amateur genealogists and other researchers, this index provides a detailed guide to materials available in the extensive Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations microfilm set. By using this index to identify specific collections in which materials pertinent to a specific family name, plantation name, or location may be found, and then reviewing the details in the appropriate Guides (see Preface), the researcher may pinpoint the location of desired materials. The items indexed include deeds, wills, estate papers, genealogies, personal and business correspondence, account books, slave lists, and many other types of records. This new edition also includes a list of all of the manuscript collections included in the microfilm set.

17 volumes.
v.1-2. South Carolina
v.3-4. Texas
v.5. Alabama and Indiana
v.6. Oklahoma and Mississippi
v.7-9. Arkansas
v.10. Arkansas and Missouri
v.11-12. Georgia
v.13-14. North Carolina
v.15. Kansas, Kentucky, and Maryland
v.16. Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee
v.17. Florida

This excellent guide provides a clear discussion of slave genealogy. Three case studies (drawn from the records of Wayne County, Kentucky) demonstrate research methods and types of analysis to be employed.

Abstracts of minutes, by county, of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions held in the State Archives of NC; county and date coverage varies. Minutes may contain details about estate, land, illegitimacy, apprenticeships, bonds, certificates granting freedom to the enslaved, and more.