African American Genealogy Records on the Internet

African American Genealogy Records

• African American Genealogy Collection at Ancestry.com (requires payment) includes...
  • U.S., Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938
  • U.S. Colored Troops Records, 1861-1865
  • U.S. Freedmen's Bureau Records, 1865-1878
  • U.S. Federal Census Indexes & Images 1790-1940; includes...
    • Slave Schedules for 1850 & 1860 (slave schedules generally name the slave owners; slaves are listed by age & gender, but not named)
    • Every name census indexes 1790-1940 (former slaves were first enumerated by name beginning in 1870)
    • 1890 Civil War Widows & Veterans Census
  • African American Newspapers, 1829-1947
  • Savannah, Georgia, Coastwise Slave Manifests, 1811-1860
  • New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860
  • Louisiana Slave Records, 1719-1820
  • Adams County, Mississippi, Slave Certificates, 1858-1861
  • Mississippi, Wilkinson County Newspaper Slave Ads, 1823-1849
  • Slave Emancipation Records, 1851-1863 & Slave Owner Petitions, 1862-1863, Washington, D.C.
  • Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 (bank depositor records of freed slaves from Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania & South Carolina)
  • And More

• Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery with 500 photographs of former slaves

• Digital Library on American Slavery a database of personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color

• Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 (Library of Congress) includes online page images and transcriptions

• Lowcountry Africana "...dedicated to records that document the family and cultural heritage of African Americans in the historic rice-growing areas of South Carolina, Georgia and extreme northeastern Florida..." Also see the South Carolina section below.

• The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database

• Digital Library on American Slavery a database of personal information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color

• Slavery Era Insurance Registry (from insurance companies doing business in California with records from various locations)
• Slavery Era Insurance Registry (from insurance companies doing business in Illinois with records from various locations)

• Free African Americans of Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina & South Carolina 18th Century to early 19th Century

• Index to Slave Compensation Claims found in the Compiled Service Records of U.S. Colored Troops (Union Soldiers - Civil War) most records are for Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland & Missouri or neighboring states

• Lauderdale County African American Genealogy Indexes
• Lee County, Alabama Colored Marriage Database 1867-1875

• Harris County, Georgia Colored Marriages Database

• Illinois Database of Servitude and Emancipation Records (1722-1863)

• Archdiocese of New Orleans: Slave and Free People of Color Baptismal Records in the Archives
• Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy Database 1718-1820 (100,000 records)
• Orleans Parish Court - Index to Slave Emancipation Petitions 1814-1843

• Mississippi Freedmen's Bureau Record Index

• Missouri Slave Data

• Slave Plantations of North Carolina
• North Carolina Runaway Slave Advertisements, 1751-1840

• Philadelphia African American Census 1847

• South Carolina Estate Inventories and Bills of Sale 1732-1872 from Fold3 and Lowcountry Africana (ongoing project/not yet complete)
• Beaufort, S.C. Slave Manifests (Outbound) & Charleston, S.C. Slave Manifests (Inbound) from the Atlanta National Archives branch

• The Texas Slavery Project (includes some online records)

• Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names
• Virginia Runaways: Runaway Slave Advertisements from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers
• Virginia Cohabitation Registers of Colored Persons also has Virginia Chancery Records Index
• Alexandria, Virginia...
  • African-American Voter Registration in Alexandria, Virginia 1902-1954
  • Alexandria: Friends of Freedmen's Cemetery has indexes and records relating to Alexandria's African American community in the 18th and 19th centuries; includes a PDF file of Freedmen Cemetery burials