It is easy for a family historian to get lazy these days. One can sit in front of a computer and travel the world, not to mention visit the neighborhood in which your ancestors were born.
Online research can take you a long way and you should absolutely take advantage of all that exists through digitization, which enables you to view, search, and print all sorts of documents. But everything is NOT digitized.
Those of us who
have been researching for a long time know that, at some point, you have to get
off your butt and go – either to your family “home place” or to a geographically
related repository of historical documents. Because so much about African
American families was not recorded in public documents, offline resources may
be the only way you will ever identify your ancestors and make connections with
living relatives.
Here are some offline sources where you can dig deeper:
COURTHOUSES
In the past, the
local courthouse was the center of legal activity for the county in which it
operated. Many records of genealogical interest will be found in these
locations. They are a goldmine of documents that verify births, marriages, land
transactions, mortgages, wills, estate records, company and bank records, tax
records, civil court records, minutes of town meetings, etc. Bear in mind that
many old courthouses (especially in the southern states) suffered fires, with a
resulting loss of documents. In recent years, many courthouse records have been
transferred to archives.
ARCHIVES
At the state level,
archives are the place to go. They are the cumulative repository of documents from
all of the courthouses around the state. You will find many of the same records
you would find in a courthouse plus much more. There is generally a library
full of books on community and state history, political activity, biographies
and special collections (like family papers). When you are uncertain about the
specific county in which your ancestor lived, archives are a “one-stop shop”
where you can research several different counties all in one place.
Additionally, there is a collection of materials on neighboring states as well.
LIBRARIES
Local libraries used to be the heart of their communities, not only a place to read books but to partake in communal activities. Librarians, especially in small communities, tend to be very knowledgeable about local history. You will find family genealogies, indexes to public records, community history books, newspapers, maps and other materials that never found their way into an archive. Many universities maintain libraries as well.
In visiting any of
these repositories, the key records to look for are estate files, family
papers, sharecropper accounts and bibles. Enslaved people are frequently named
in these documents and nowhere else.
Even if you do not
succeed in finding your specific ancestors, you can gain perspective on the
times and conditions in which they lived by visiting home communities and
institutions that preserve community memory. These include historical
societies, historic sites, museums, churches and cemeteries.
Sharon Leslie
Morgan is the founder of OurBlackAncestry.com, a website dedicated to African
American family research. She is co-author of Gather at the Table: The
Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade (Beacon Press, 2012). This blog
expresses the views of the author and should not be attributed to the National
Genealogical Society.
Editor's Note: This is the second in a sequence of four posts by Sharon
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