Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States."
I am often asked about the difficulty of researching African American family history. Many seem to believe, mistakenly I might add, that it is next to impossible to trace African American ancestry prior to the mid-1800's. The best response I have seen to this thought was made by Alva Griffith on the AfriGeneas Mail List:
"It is not a lost cause!!!... The first and foremost thing And, yes, they often even have lists of slave births at the back of their Bibles! The biggest initial problem will probably be determining just who the owner was, and there are methods for doing that... it just takes time, research and
patience, sometimes with a little luck thrown in for good measure... after that, your people will be there, in their owner's records. If your people were not slaves, they will be found in the normal records in the normal places... a fair number of us were not slaves... perhaps your people were free and moved to a new location, and that is why you have not found them where you expected them to be living.
Also MANY slaves had more than one name, and had different last names from their owners... even BEFORE the end of slavery! A fair amount of them had 3-word-names as well: my husband's grandfather was Frank Thomas LOGAN- born in 1859, and he was a slave until he was 7 years old, just as his mother, Mary Louisa LOGAN, had been all her life; my own grandfather was born just after slavery in 1867, and his name was Aaron Mitchell RHODES. There are a number of resource books that you can get to read about how to do this, the best (and latest) I know of being: Finding A Place Called Home, by Dee Parmer Woodtor, publ[ished] by Random House. Much help is also available HERE at Afrigeneas, where you can share the combined knowledge of numerous researchers by email. I note that you are also at AOL, where we have 3 chat rooms devoted to African American genealogy discussion live, and a Resource Area for your use. Please don't hesitate to take advantage of the many kinds of assistance available to help you find your people." reprinted with the permission of Alva Griffith . Tags: Alva Griffith, ancestry prior, mortgages, researching, wedding gifts
