Is it harder for a black person to trace their family tree due to slavery?

Question

I was thinking about doing it but reading a question just now a girl said she cant get past her great grandparents because of the whole slave thing. that got me thinking I do not know anything about black slavery so I do not know when it happened so how far back could I go but getting tangled in with it as there wouldnt be no information?

Answer 1

www,accessgenealogy.com has these types of records:

African American Records

Our African American records section provides extensive listings of available free resources online for African American ancestral research.

Family Tree Search - Over 3.5 million names!

Cemetery Transcriptions Database - Over 27,000 names!

On a sample search for the surname Jones, it had these among 5500 listings:

1.Surnames J (Death and Internment at Colored Refugee Home, Camp Nelson, KY, 1864-1865 )

2.Surnames M (Death and Internment at Colored Refugee Home, Camp Nelson, KY, 1864-1865)

3. Rowe, Hatie (Oklahoma Slave Narratives)

4.Campbel, James (Ohio Slave Narratives)

5.Baugh, Alice (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

6.Cofer, Betty Aunt (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

7.Eatman, George (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

8.Evans, John (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

9.Gudger, Sarah (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

10.Harris, George W. (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

11.Hinton, Jerry (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

12.Hinton, Robert (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

13.Hodges, Eustace (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

14.Hunter, Charlie H. (North Carolina Slave Narratives)

15.Anderson, Josephine (Florida Slave Narratives)

16.Andrews, Samuel Simeon (Florida Slave Narratives)

17.Hooks, Rebecca (Florida Slave Narratives)

18.Pretty, George (Florida Slave Narratives)

19.Sherman, William (Florida Slave Narratives)

The slave narratives are just that--interviews with former slaves and transcribed just as they spoke the words. Here's a sampling from one in North Carolina (NOTE-- I am NOT being racist here, or making fun of anyone's speech. This is a word-for-word copy/paste from the website where it is located as listed above), told by a Mr. George W Harris:

" My name is George Harris. I wuz born November 25, 82 years ago. I have been living in the City of Raleigh onto 52 years. I belonged to John Andrews. He died about de time I wuz born. His wife Betsy wuz my missus and his son John wuz my marster.

   Deir plantation wuz in Jones County. Dere were about er dozen slaves on de plantation. We had plenty o' food in slavery days during my boyhood days, plenty of good sound food. We didn't have 'xactly plenty o' clothes, and our places ter sleep needed things, we were in need often in these things. We were treated kindly, and no one abused us. We had as good owners as there were in Jones County; they looked out for us. They let us have patches to tend and gave us what we made. We did not have much money. We had no church on the plantation, but there wuz one on Marster's brother's plantation next ter his plantation.

    De plantation wuz fenced in wid rails about 10 ft. in length split from pine trees. De cattle, hogs an' hosses run out on de free range. There wuz an ole mare dat led de hosses. She led 'em an' when she come home at night dey followed her.

     My mother was named Jennie Andrews and my father was Quash Harris. My father belonged to de Harris family on de nex' plantation in Jones County. Atter de surrender we all went in his name. We changed from Andrews to Harris. I do not recollect my grandmother and grandfather. I can't recollect them.

       I married Mary Boylan first, of Johnston County, at Wilsons Mills, Jan. 4, 1878. Here is de family record. Ole marster made me copies after de war, and I copied dis. 'George Harris was married the year 1878, January the 4th. George Harris was born the year 1855 November the 25th.'

     I had five brothers, but they are all dead, fur as I know: John Nathan, Louis, David, Jefferson, Donald and my name George. My sisters, Mary Ann, Sara, Lucy, Penny, Emaline, Lizzie, Nancy, Leah and one I can't remember. Dats all."

(So, just in the last 3 paragraphs is  good family info for someone to start with).

www.ancestry.com has these (with number of listings):

1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules --3,193,212

On their home page, go down to where it says "All databases" and you'll be amazed at how many pages they have.

If you still need some help, email me some names and I'll see what I can find for you. My email is in my profile.

Answer 2

I think it is an interesting question. Know this, Tulane University in New Orleans has the most complete record of all slave sale transactions that occured in New Orleans' entire history. New Orleans was the slave trade central for the entire western hemisphere.

Many African Americans arriving on slave ships at New Orleans harbors, already had Muslim names and were Muslim not Christian. Islam was the prevailing religion amongst arriving Africans.

(For information about the other African religions you must consult Cuban Blacks and Black History as told by Spanish speaking blacks because amongst the Spanish, blacks were better able to secretly retain knowledge of their own African culture and history, unlike here in the US where the Anglos more thoroughly destroyed the aboriginal people. In Cuba there was a secret society amongst the blacks whereby African culture and history was passed down hidden away from the Spanish slavemaster)

Blacks were given Christian names according to their buyers, so typicaly, a black man named Jones belonged to a white man named Jones, and so on. This is a sad but important fact to remember when tracing African American familty history. (and don't waste time getting mad about it) You have to face the grim reality of salvery and property rights upon human beings. I personaly have a genetic approach to the task but I don't have the expertise or the funding for research.

Dillard is a major African American university you might look for help from. There is another one I want to remember, but it eludes me now. it was responsible for digging up and cataloging the massive African American burial grounds found under Manhattan at the end of the last century which showed the world that the North actualy had slaves too but hid it by genocide when they were finished with them. Was it Howard University?

First, I'd say, you have to see how far back you can go just tracing family from the twentieth century to the nineteenth century. Not all African Americans  are descended from slaves! Some may have come here as freemen from a foreign country after slavery was on the way out. Some may have escaped the havoc that the Louisiana Purchase caused for African Aristocarts (as I understand it) but you won't find it in English, you have to read it in Spanish or French because the Anglos erased it from threir history.

African American History and Culture is a hobby of mine.

Answer 3

Just because you may not be able to get past your great grandparents is no reason not to research your heritage!!

You just might be surprised at what you will find.

Don't let anyone discourage you and you  may find cousins you never knew you had.  I certainly have.

And I have a few great grandparents I can't get past either, but I still keep researching.

Have fun and good luck.

Answer 4

I worked on this and actually it is probably easier because of your race.  We have excellent memories.

Answer 5

it all depends on wether or not your family descended from slaves. if they did it would be very hard to trace your family because slave owners did not keep parental records and many familys were seperated.

Answer 6

hi, i dont really know the answer to this one, but would suggest changing the tiltle to your question, minus the balck and slavery as all you will get is very small minded people slating you for nothing, i would suggest asking your oldest ancestor though.... good luck.

Answer 7

No i don't think so as households had to register all therre staff

Answer 8

it just depends...

I traced my family tree back all the way back to Ghana, to be honest with you i know what ship my grand parents came on and the date.

Answer 9

You are on the UK/Ireland site so I assume your family are of Afro Caribbean descent, if I am correct,  then if you can track back to a specific person they might be in the slave schedules that were created when slavery became illegal and the slave owners were compensated by the British government.

Hope this helps

good luck and good hunting

Answer 10

Ancestry.com has slave schedules for 1850 and 1860

One problem that you could encounter is that from what I have read, some slave bosses changed their slaves names to their surname, so that the slaves` real surname became lost.

Also, a lot of births, marriages and deaths went unrecorded.

The best you can do is make a start and get as far back as you can.  You will probably hit a few brick walls along the way, but don`t we all.

Good Luck

Answer 11

You don't know anything about slavery?

anywayz.. you could ask the oldest person in your family whether or not their grandparents were slaves and so on... that's could be a start

Answer 12

It may be more of a challenge, but it is not impossible.  If you have not had a chance, watch African American Lives Part I and II on PBS or purchase the DVD's of the series.  Professor Henry Louis Gates researched various ancestries of African Americans.  I included a link to the National Archives; they have some interesting information.

Answer 13

Yes, it is.

The US Census recorded the names of free white heads of households from 1790 onwards. In 1850 they started recording the names of every free person. Most Blacks were not free, so they didn't get recorded. They did have slave schedules, that would say John Smith owned 12 slaves, but that doesn't help much, since it didn't give their names, just their owner. It wasn't until 1870 that the US census started listing Black people by name.

Many types of records we use to track people - wills, land ownership, church records, tax records, military pension claims - were for free people only. (Also male people only, which is why we dead end on women far more frequently than we do on men.)

Many Blacks were illiterate, which didn't help matters. It was a capital offense to teach slaves to read and write in most slave states; the whites feared the slaves would forge manumission papers. After1865 they became literate, but not overnight.

If you are Black, you can usually get back to people living in 1870. If you are white - especially if you are white from New England, where almost everyone went to school and those stone churches didn't burn to the ground very often - you can get back to 1850 at a minimum and sometimes to 1620.