Customer Reviews

Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity, Revised and Expanded

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Dee Parmer Woodtor, Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity (New York: Random House, 1999) is a superb discussion of resources and methods, with a well-developed (and essential) emphasis on interpreting evidence from records. Includes examples and case studies throughout. The best book of its genre yet written.

Best book on the market for a genealogical researcher. It is easy to read and reviews in detail, how to reseach your ancestor, who may have once been a slave. It reviews records that other guides do not explain or may not know exist. Finding this book, when I hit the brick wall was heaven sent. Not only did it help me decide what to do next, but it also help me to review the work I had did before and to see what steps I had missed. This book should be recommended reading for all genealogical researchers, beginners and advanced. Even though this book details African-American researching, it could be used for all types of genealogical researching.

African-American genealogy is a field that few non-Black researchers know very much about, myself included. The essentials of family research are generally the same, of course, and this well-written book reflects that -- but there are also a great many special considerations, techniques, and applications of old ideas that Woodtor presents clearly and in detail. Several chapters lay out the basic principles for the novice: Working backward from the living generation, moving from the known to the unknown, developing good research habits, checking all the sources, and so on. But they also point out the importance of oral tradition among African-American families, the necessity of identifying the last slave owner, and the tendency among many families to "disremember" unpleasant periods or relationships in the past. The author also relies on anecdotes, mostly from her own family, to illustrate the research process and to warn of special problems the researcher may encounter. A number of important topics are discussed at length, most of which I had only the most superficial knowledge of. Among these were the several extended exoduses during the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the great out-migration from Edgefield County, South Carolina to Tennesse, Arkansas, and (via Charleston) to Liberia; the "exodusters" movement of 1878-1879 from most of the Od South to Kansas and the Midwest; and the effects of World War I on the formation of a Black artisan and middle-class. Even searching the censuses of 1870-1920 brings special problems for the African-American researcher, since race was often incorrectly reported and surnames often changed over time. Another important consideration is possible enlistment in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War; this is especially true for Louisiana (my special research area), which supplied more enlistees than any other state, North or South. There are several rules to keep in mind in working your way back before 1865: The smaller the slave owner, the fewer the records created. Rather than analyzing nuclear families, one will be looking at lists of slaves in an effort to reconstruct kinship ties. The general principle of working slowly from the present to the past tends to break down in slave research, with very wide gaps between records. In order to understand the movement and selling of more than one million slaves in the South between 1790 and 1860, one must understand the principles and mechanics of the slave trade. And, perhaps most important, the genealogy of slaves is the genealogy of slave owners. The author also explains the reasons behind "protective" slavery and slave ownership by free Blacks, the place of free Blacks in the North before the Civil War, and the question of American Indian ancestry among African-Americans. Several closing chapters discuss special topics, including Caribbean ancestry, sources of African-American institutional records, genealogical research at family reunions, and what to do with your research. I highly recommend this volume to any and all genealogists, regardless of race or ethnicity.

The book itself is beautifully laid out with photos, tables, quotes and sample documents. But don't let the good looks fool you! This book has real meat to it! I heartily applaud Dee's efforts to:

describe the type of records available

suggest how to organize research

handle the delicacies of slave trading, and the consequential short history of many African Americans

discuss the usefulness of tracing European ancestry

assist you in finding your own voice during the process

guide readers to a thoughtful presentation of results.

Chapter headings include:

Regaining Our Collective Memory, Reclaiming a Lost Family Tradition

Beginning Your Genealogical Pursuit

Techniques & Tools

Your Ancestors on Record: The importance of documenting the life cycle

A Place Called Down Home

Unraveling the ties that Bound 1870-1920

Finding Freedom's Generation 1860-1865

Close to Kin, but Still Waiting for Forty Acres and a Mule - Searching for your ancestors during the reconstruction

A Long Way to Freedom - The genealogy of your slave ancestors

The Last Slave and the Last Slave Owner

The Records of Slavery

Reconstructing Families and Kinship in the Slave Community

The Records Freedom Generated

The Last African & the First American

Conclusion - Family Reunions & Regaining a Collective Memory

Special topics include:

Sources for Advanced Research in Slave Genealogy

African American Institutional Records

Caribbean Ancestry

American Indian Ancestry

World Wars I & II

What to Do with Your Research - Writing family memoirs or the family story, and 101 genealogy research projects waiting to be done

Further Note on County Courthouse Records

Personal Recordkeeping with exercises for Beginners

African American and Genealogy Web Sites

African American Genealogy Societies in the United States and Canada.

Dee's bibliography, referenced by chapter, is found on 24 pages of closely spaced lettering -- a literal MUST READ set of resources to augment her offerings.

Notable comments, which ring true to my understanding include:

"...Once you find the last slave owner, you are using his family history and genealogy as a guide to identify his recorded transactions that named slaves he and his extended family owned over time using primarily the family's personal records, if you can find them, and any public transactions that they recorded at the courthouse. " p 275.

"Dotted throughout the South are thousands of small African American Churches of every known Protestant denomination. If there are now approximately 65,000 African American Churches in the United States, over half of them must be in the south.

A recent survey reported that 70 percent of African Americans attend church. In each and every county of the historical Black Belt and in every small place where Black folks lived during slavery, you will find that they established independent churches within a few decades of emancipation. Many were extensions of churches established during slavery or through a bequest by a former slave owner." p 107.

Regarding African Americans serving in the military during the US Civil War from page 148: "Anoder ting is, suppose you had kept your freedom without enlisting in dis army; your chillen might have grown up free and been well cultivated as to be equal to any business, but it would have been always thrown in dere faces --"Your fater never fought for his own freedom." Private Thomas Long, 1st Carolina South Colunteers Cited in Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Civil War.

The author, Dee Woodtor, is a member of the Genealogy Forum staff

copyright 2000

As a serious researcher for over twenty years of various ethnic origins, regions and time periods, I found this book to be packed with information and encouragement for anyone researching African Americans. She not only includes hundreds of resources but gives examples of what you may find. She continually encourages the reader to keep looking and finding slave ancestors is not impossible. She also dimisses many myths about the lives of slaves as well as slaveholders. The book is very readable, for the beginner or experienced researcher. It is particularly helpful for someone who believes they have hit a brick wall. The author has combined her book into a "book of sources" with a "how-to book" in a most successful manner. Other genealogy writers would profit by studying her methodology.

This is a must purchase for any genealogist, especially the Afican American Genealogist. It is an excellent resource for both the novice and the professional genealogist!!!