Finding Your African- American Roots

Transcription

1 Finding Your African- American Roots at Mount Clemens Public Library

2 Finding Your African-American Roots at Mount Clemens Public Library Researching your family history can be a rewarding experience, and Mount Clemens Public Library's genealogy collection contains many useful resources for both beginning and advanced family historians of all ethnic backgrounds. This pamphlet will offer tips for those who face the unique challenges of African-ancestored genealogical research. Start with yourself! The place to start with any genealogical project is yourself! Record everything you know about yourself and your family. This is the ideal time to visit and interview family members, and to collect documents and photographs related to your unique history. Use pedigree charts and family group sheets to organize your information. The library can provide sample copies of these forms for you, and a simple family group sheet is included in the back of this pamphlet to get you started. Learn Basic Research Techniques Once you have recorded what you know about your family, it will be easy to see what information is missing and needs further research. If you are a newcomer to genealogy, we recommend that you learn about the different types of historical records that may assist you in your project by consulting some basic how-to materials. For example, you may wish to check out these books from the library's collection: Black Roots : A Beginners Guide To Tracing The African American Family Tree / Tony Burroughs [Mich Bur] Finding Your People: An African-American Guide to Discovering Your Roots / Sandra Lee Jamison [Mich Jam] How to Trace Your African-American Roots : Discovering Your Unique History / Barbara Thompson Howell [Mich How] Genealogists Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors: How to Find and Record Your Unique Heritage / Emily Ann Croom [Mich Cro] Or, you may use the Internet to consult these helpful web sites: Christine's Genealogy Website [ a collection of helpful tips for African-American research Afrigeneas [afrigeneas.com] features user forums for posting questions about African-American research problems and challenges, as well as usercontributed databases of records. Don't miss African American Genealogy: An Online Interactive Guide for Beginners by Dee Parmer Woodtor, which is included on the site at

3 African-American Genealogy Group [ a great link to genealogy events and online classes Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society [ based in Detroit, Michigan, and dedicated to researching and preserving African-American family history. The society publishes a quarterly newsletter, and offers regular opportunities to attend workshops, seminars, and field trips. For local researchers, this is organization is an important resource for education and networking with other family historians. Search for Records When you know what types of records you need to find, you may search a number of very helpful online databases. Some are available from any Internet-connected computer, and others [where noted] are subscription databases available only in the library, and may be searched at the computer in the genealogy room, or at the Internet computers on the main floor of the library. AncestryPlus [available in library only] one of the largest genealogy sites available, this resource includes indexes and images of United States census schedules , Civil War service and pension records, World War I draft registrations, some city directory entries from around the county, vital records databases for many states, and user-contributed pedigrees and queries. Portions of this site are free to any user on the Ancestry.com web site, other portions of the site are for use in libraries only. FamilySearch visit the LDS church's genealogy web site at [ to search the International Genealogical Index, Ancestry File, and Family History Library Catalog. The LDS maintains the world's largest genealogy library. HeritageQuest Online [available in library only] this database includes thousands of digitized family histories from around the country, as well as U.S. Census indexes and images, and a genealogy periodical index, known as PERSI. It is valuable for rare family histories that may not be available through interlibrary loan. Family histories are keyword-indexed, so family names and localities may be searched. America's Obituaries and Death Notices [available in library only] this database includes the text of obituaries and death notices drawn from over 450 newspapers across the United States. Coverage is for recent decades, with the notable exception of The Chicago Tribune, which covers notices dating as far back as This database is keyword searchable and is very useful for tracing family members in recent generations, as well as for finding burial locations.

4 Sites With Notable African-American Collections AncestryPlus: includes the following: Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, compiled by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Project Administration. Slave schedules of United States census, Library of Congress American Memory Project [ memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html] This digital history project includes many databases with African-American historical sources, including: From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, The Church in the Southern Black Community, Slaves and the Courts, Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. Freedmen's Bureau Online [ The Freedmen's Bureau was established in the War Department by an act of March 3, The Bureau supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumed custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory. African American Cemeteries Online [ view cemetery transcriptions from across the United States. Obituaries from the Michigan Chronicle [ This site includes obituaries published in the Michigan Chronicle, the state's oldest surviving African-American newspaper, from 1997 to present. Local Resources If your family history is partially based in Macomb County, the library's web site at [ contains many useful Macomb County databases, including the Suburban Library Cooperative Digital Media Archive, which includes thousands of photographs. You are also welcome to attend any meeting of the Macomb County Genealogy Group, which meets in the library every other Friday afternoon throughout the year. Members of the Genealogy Group also volunteer their time and expertise as assistants in the library's genealogy room at selected times during the week. Ask a reference librarian for current schedules.

5 Family Group Sheet Husband: Wife: ======================================================================= CHILDREN #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6

6 Mount Clemens Public Library 150 Cass Avenue Mount Clemens MI (586) /2005