Researching African American Family History

Tags

AfricanAmericanGenealogy, genealogy

Searching for your African American Family History comes with a unique set of challenges due to the lack of records produced.

Only now are more publications being made to organize what information that does exist and to help people research their family history.

To begin, gather your records and write down your history from present time to as far back as you can. Be sure to include any family stories as these may hold valuable clues. Find a way to organize your information in a way that works for you and stick to it while searching.

Start here (resources that span the ages):

Census: 1940–1870  —  available online through CCLD at Heritage Quest (must have CCLD library card to access). http://ccld.lib.ny.us/genealogy-links/

Birth, marriage, and death records

City Directories

Newspapers

 

Post Civil War era:

Freedman’s Bank Records: available online through CCLD at Heritage Quest (must have CCLD library card to access). http://ccld.lib.ny.us/genealogy-links/  The Freedman’s Savings Bank was set up for African Americans after slavery ended. Though it operated only from 1865-1874, it is a valuable source of information for people tracing their African American ancestors back to the Civil War.

African American Newspapers: available online at Accessible Archives through CCLD. This enormous collection of African American newspapers contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s. The collection also provides a great number of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience. http://ccld.lib.ny.us/genealogy-links/

1867 Voter Registration

Civil War Era:

Records of United States Colored Troops (USCT) in the Civil War

 

Confederate Slave Payrolls

Pre-Civil War era:

Slave Schedules: “Population schedules used in two U.S. Federal Censuses: The 1850 U.S. Federal Census and the 1860 U.S. Federal Census. Slaves were usually not named, but enumerated separately and usually only numbered under the slave owner’s name. The National Archives has microfilmed all of the original manuscripts for applicable states.” More info and links to online access: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Census_Slave_Schedules

FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS OF VIRGINIA,  NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND AND DELAWARE. Listing of free African Americans in the Southeast during the colonial period extracted from primary source materials. http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/

Plantation Owner’s Records:

I’ve traced my Enslaved Ancestors and their Owners facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/188373451214240/?hc_location=ufi

The Beyond Kin Project: Donna Cox Baker and Frazine K. Taylor conceived the Beyond Kin Project in 2016 as a way to encourage and facilitate the documentation of enslaved populations, particularly by recruiting the resources and efforts of the descendants of slaveholders.

https://beyondkin.org/

African Diaspora:

Trans-Atlantic Slave Database: Information on over 35,000 slaving voyages that occurred between 1514 and 1866, manipulable into maps, timelines, tables, and graphs. Includes African Names Database, recommended websites, essays to provide context, and images (manuscripts, places, slaves, and vessels). https://www.slavevoyages.org/

Further Reading:

Article about last names of enslaved persons:

https://www.theroot.com/tracing-your-roots-were-slaves-surnames-like-brands-1796141007

Timeline of Black History: https://ourblackancestry.com/facts.php?sid=1

FamilySearch guide to African American Genealogy Records: https://www.familysearch.org/african-american-genealogy

African American Genealogy–An Online Interactive Guide
http://www.afrigeneas.com/guide/index.html

National Archives: Guide on African American Research
https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans

Help:

Genealogy Support through Coming to the Table: Genealogical Research rests at the core of the Coming to the Table Approach and its focus on Facing History openly and honestly. Many members of CTTT are active and skilled genealogists. If you would like help with your own research, or if you have skills you are willing to share with others in their research, please contact us.

http://comingtothetable.org/resources/genealogy-support/

Our Black ancestry ($)–Our Black Ancestry Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources for African American genealogical research, preserving historic materials and properties, and promoting the healing of wounds that are the legacy of slavery. Our primary activity is sponsorship of this Our Black Ancestry (OBA) website and member portal.: https://ourblackancestry.com/

• Our Black Ancestry facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/13488807931/

Print resources at the Steele Memorial Library, Elmira NY:

Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives.	016.973 N552
Black and free : the free Negro in America, 1830 : a commentary on Carter Woodson’s Free Negro heads of families in the United States in 1830	305.896 317.3 ABR
Minority military service, Connecticut, 1775-1783	305.896 973.34 CT
Black courage, 1775-1783 : documentation of Black participation in the American Revolution	305.896 973.34 GRE
Minority military service, Massachusetts, 1775-1783	305.896 973.34 MA
Minority military service, Maine, 1775-1783	305.896 973.34 ME
Minority military service, New Hampshire, Vermont, 1775-1783	305.896 973.34 NH VT
Minority military service, Rhode Island, 1775-1783	305.896 973.34 RI
An index of African Americans identified in selected records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands	305.896 973.81 LAW
And they were related, too : a study of eleven generations of one American family! (Condol/Congdon)	929.2 CON
Places of the Underground Railroad : a geographical guide*	973.7115 C142
A Heritage uncovered : the black experience in upstate New York	974.747 HER
Zebratown : the true story of a black ex-con and a white single mother in small-town America	974.778 D676
The Black minority in early New York	301.45
Antebellum Black newspapers : indices to New York Freedom’s journal (1827-1829), the Rights of all (1829), the Weekly advocate (1837), and the Colored American (1837-1841)	305.896 ANT
A student’s guide to African American genealogy	305.896 929 JOH
Black genesis : a resource book for African-American genealogy	305.896 929 ROS
Guide to tracing your African Ameripean Civil War ancestor	305.896 973.7 SEC
The African Burial Ground in New York City : memory, spirituality, and space	305.896 FRO
The Black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925	305.896 GUT
African American historic burial grounds and gravesites of New England	305.896 KNO
Generations : the WPA ex-slave narrative genealogical resource database. Volume I, Ex-slaves with Virginia origins	305.896 ROS
A biographical history of Blacks in America since 1528	305.896 TOPP
Black Indians : a hidden heritage / Katz, William Loren	305.8969 KAT
Black Indian genealogy research	305.8969 WAL
Slave ancestral research : it’s something else	306.362 FEA
Slave genealogy : a research guide with case studies	306.362 STR
Help me to find my people	306.362 WIL
A history of Negro slavery in New York	326.974 MCM
A student’s guide to African American genealogy	929.1 J66A
Black genesis	929.1 R796
Case studies in Afro-American genealogy	929.1 THA
List of free Black heads of families in the first census of the United States, 1790	305.896 E34
Index to the Cherokee freedmen enrollment cards of the Dawes Commission, 1901-1906	929.373 PAG
The Genealogy of John W. Jones, 1817-1900	973.715 JON
The life and times of John W. Jones, 1817-1900 : a collection of facts and articles about Mr. Jones’ life	929.2 JONES 2
Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware : from the colonial period to 1810	305.896 HEI
Free African Americans of Maryland 1832	305.896 HYN
The slave years, 1760-1764 : Names and surprising details	305.896 PAT
Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina : from the colonial period to about 1820. Vols 1-2	305.896 HEI

*https://transcription.si.edu/project/7955

Elmira Newspapers now digitized

Tags

digitization, genealogy, newspapers, NNYLN, NYSHistoricNewspapers, research, SCRLC

Thanks to our amazing friends at Northern New York Library Network and thanks to a grant from SCRLC, we now can say that Elmira newspapers as early as 1835 (the earliest we have in the library) are digitized and available freely online!

But, don’t take our word for it! See for yourself!

http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030949/issues/

New yearbooks: HHDS 1963, and Elmira Catholic High 1942, 1947

New to the collection

The Mark Twain : photographs of Elmira’s million dollar hotel

–See also: website of Mark Twain hotel memories and stories:

http://www.shs58.org/mark_twain/

 

Goodbye forever. Life beyond Germany : emigration in the 19th century

 

The descendants of Cornelius and Sarah Howell of Chemung County, NY

 

 

Erie Canal Exhibit at the Steele Memorial Library

Tags

ErieCanal

February 2019 at the Steele Memorial Library: Erie Canal Bicentennial Exhibition

“Two Hundred Years on the Erie Canal” was developed by the Western New York Library Resources Council, with grant funding from Humanities New York, to celebrate the Bicentennial groundbreaking of the Erie Canal in New York State.

The DPLA has a digital companion exhibit located online via this link:

https://dp.la/exhibitions/erie-canal

Elmira was connected to the Erie Canal through the Chemung Canal, which is now Route 14. This canal operated from 1833 through the 1870s.  For more on the Chemung Canal, click here: http://thechemungcanal.com/

View of the old Erie Canal at Lockport, Niagara County, showing the two tiers of five locks under construction, with a towpath on the right. The locks take the canal off the Allegheny Plateau down to the Ontario Lake Plain. Collection of NYS Archives, available online at DPLA: https://dp.la/item/3bcb82a0d9a627b97954a18b12179554?q=erie%20canal

 

 

 

 

Elmira through the ages: A Pictorial Review

Tags

ELMIRA NY, ELMIRAVIEWS

 

Elmira, 1840.                                                                                                       http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16003coll4/id/1437

 

Elmira from East Hill, 1862. A nice view of the Chemung Canal and canal boats. Image courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society.

 

Elmira 1873 by Bailey, H. H. (Howard Heston), 1836-1878. Library of Congress. Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/99447822

____________________________________________________________________________________________

1882:  artist: Burleigh. lithographer: JH Kirby. Image Courtesy of Chemung County Historical Society.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Elmira 1884 by John Moray and printed by Mensing & Stechep (Rochester, NY). Image courtesy of NY Historical Society.

 

Elmira NY 1901. Perspective map not drawn to scale. Bird’s-eye-view. LC Panoramic maps (2nd ed.), 559 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Includes illus., directory, and view of “Elmira Heights, N.Y. 1901.” AACR2
LCCN Permalink
https://lccn.loc.gov/75694768

 

From the CCLD Collection:

dates unknown:

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

New to the Collection: Register of EFA Alumni 1859–1909

Tags

EFA, Elmira FamilyHistory, ElmiraFreeAcademy, ElmiraNYGenealogy

New to the Collection is the Register of the Alumni of Elmira Free Academy. 1859-1909

The volume finally gives us information about EFA graduates in Elmira before 1909. Check out some of the images below for a sample of what this volume has to offer. Do you recognize any names?

New to the Local History/Family History Collection Winter 2018

FAMILY GENEALOGIES

The Fleming family of Bradford County PA and Chemung County NY:. Also allied families Gordon and Shoemaker

The Fleming family photographs

The Fleming family.

[Seeley family Scrapbook]

The Fleming family correspondence / Fleming, Ruth.

Genealogies by Ruth Fleming: Altmann, Bashline, Best, Bicehouse, Brown, Fairley, Fleming, Fry(e), Mix (Meeks), Neely (Neligh), Reichard (Richard), Rittenhouse, Shoemaker, Weeter (Witter), Hotchkiss, Over

The Goldsmith family of and from Orange County, New York

The Ebenezer Doane family. Supplement to A.A. Doane’s Genealogy of Deacon John Doane and his descendants, published in 1902

The Doane family. Volume II

The Stowell Genealogy

The Tice families in America: Theis, Thyssen, Tyssen, Deis

The Maury family tree; descendants of Mary Anne Fontaine (1690-1755) and Matthew Maury (1686-1752) and others

Jacob Perkins & allied families

Ancestors of American presidents

Ancestors and descendants of William Browning Greene and Mary Hoxsie Lewis with allied families

 

MARK TWAIN COLLECTION

My Mark Twain by William Dean Howells

Foretasting heaven : talking to Twain at Quarry Farm

Quarry Farm papers : an occasional publication of the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm

 

AFRICAN AMERICAN GENEALOGY RESOURCES

Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware : from the colonial period to 1810

Free African Americans of Maryland 1832

The slave years, 1760-1764 : Names and surprising details

The slave years, 1750-1759 : Names and surprising details

Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina : from the colonial period to about 1820

 

NATIVE AMERICAN

Onions, tomahawks and spoons : interesting glimpses into the local history of Canastota, Oneida, Sherrill, Vernon and the surrounding region

History of Brulé’s discoveries and explorations, 1610-1626, being a narrative of the discovery, by Stephen Brulé, of lakes Huron, Ontario and Superior; and of his explorations (the first made by civilized man) of Pennsylvania and western New York, also of the Province of Ontario, Canada; with a biographical notice of the discoverer and explorer, who was killed and eaten by savages

 

NYS

Surname index, 1800 census, Westchester County, New York

New York biographical dictionary

Proceedings of the Elmira Academy of Sciences

A bird’s eye view of New York : views and viewmakers of New York State, 1836-1892

Historical sources for Jewish heritage in Elmira : collected from the archives of the Chemung County Historical Society and Congregation Kol Ami

 

PENNSYLVANIA

Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania

Indiana County 175th anniversary history

Bradford County PA pamphlets and clippings

Eastern Pennsylvania Counties pamphlets and clippings

Bedford County Pennsylvania pamphlets and clippings

Southwest counties of Pennsylvania pamphlets and clippings

IMMIGRATION/GENEALOGY

Naval records for genealogists

The Norman people and their existing descendants in the British dominions and the United States of America

 

 

 

 

Online research for Elmira Newspapers

Tags

ChemungCounty, ElmiraGazette, ElmiraHistory, NYSHistoricNewspapers

Here is a step by step guide to finding years available online for Chemung County Newspapers on NYS Historic Newspapers.  I have also included some other search strategies for local newspapers.

We currently have 1891-1907 of the Elmira Gazette online through NYS Historic Newspapers.

Here is a link to their homepage: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/

To view a full list of Chemung County papers online, please click on Chemung County in the NYS map.

This takes you to this page: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/titles/places/new_york/chemung/

To the right of the page, you will see the titles and the years the title was in publication. Question marks are often used if it is unclear when the paper ceased publication.
This is due to many assorted reasons.  If you would like to see a list of the issues digitized and available online right now, please follow these steps:
​

First, from the Chemung County Page, click on the title you would like to see.
In this case, we are selecting “The Elmira Gazette.”

This takes you to this webpage: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030949/

On the right of the page, you will see a thumbnail image of a newspaper and a little calendar icon with a prompt that says “Browse: calendar view.”
The “Calendar View” prompt is clickable.. Please click on it. That will take you here: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030949/issues/
​

On the left side of the page, you will see “Issues For: [YEAR}.
The year for the Elmira Gazette starts at 1891.
You can click on the year and a drop-down box will appear which shows you all the years online that are available.
In this instance, you will see that the years available digitally for this title go up to 1907.

For researching the Star-Gazette online, the Star-Gazette website has an archives function. This is a personal subscription page that does cost money to view the full articles. However, one can still lookup things on the site and get thumbnails of articles complete with date and page number without paying to subscribe.
To find the Star-Gazette Archives feature, go to their home page, https://www.stargazette.com/  and click on “Archives.” This will take you here:  https://stargazette.newspapers.com/?xid=983

The Star-Gazette is also available online through a paid personal subscription through newspapers.com.
Institutional subscriptions that include digital access to this title are available through ProQuest, but run upwards of $4,000 per year for access.
This proves to be unsustainably cost-prohibitive for the Genealogy Department to offer to patrons.

We offer full-text of the Star-Gazette on microfilm to patrons who come in to research.
They can procure dates and pages numbers from the Star-Gazette archives site, or from searching the newspaper index through the library StarCat catalog.
To search for local history articles on the StarCat catalog:
1. Go to the StarCat page: http://starcat.stls.org/client/en_US/default
2. Type in keywords, or the [LastName, FirstName] of the person you are searching for.
3. I typed in elmira airport.  I got to this link with all the newspaper results for the airport:

http://starcat.stls.org/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=elmira+airport&te=ILS

4. To limit your search to just newspaper articles, click on “Newspaper” under “Material Type” in the left-hand column.

We also offer a distance research service to out-of town researchers.  The directions on how to do this can be found here: http://ccld.lib.ny.us/submit-a-research-query/

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions on this or any other matter.

All the Very Best,

Maggie Young

Genealogy and Local History Librarian

Steele Memorial Library
Chemung County Library District
101 E. Church St.
Elmira NY 14901
http://www.ccld.lib.ny.us
P: (607)733-8603
F: (607)733-9176
E: youngm@stls.org

Problems with Ancestry Library Edition

Tags

AncestryLibraryEdition, CCLD, genealogy, ThereIFixedIt

Click on the link for a slideshow on how to find related records in Ancestry Library Edition.

Problems with ancestry library edition

Another problem on the search function–the algorithm seems to be ignoring location info. For example, if I put in a specific city I may get 20 matches from other states before the one for my search, though all have the same name. It seems to be forgetting to prioritize my results by location. This seems to be a recent, but pervasive, change.

If you see strange results in your searches, please copy the URL of the page and send it to me and I can notify the good folks at Ancestry.  (youngm@stls.org)