A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors provides easy, step-by-step instruction for researching slave and free black ancestors pre- and post-Civil War. More than an exhaustive list of resources, this book draws a map to guide researchers, whether novice or experienced, through the genealogical wilderness to their ancestors long forgotten. It introduces readers to a systematic approach that should help eliminate months or years of aimless wondering. And, the unique and winning combination in authors - an African-American who can relate his research experience into black slave family history and a white slave-owning family who were also his ancestors, and a best-selling, nationally recognised genealogical author - will make this book stand out among the rest.
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Smith, amateur historian, and Croom, author of several genealogy books, offer a helpful resource for overcoming the particular challenges and obstacles faced by African Americans doing genealogical searches. The book provides a three-part approach to researching family history. Part 1 covers the post-Civil War era to the present, showing readers how to search census records and oral histories. Part 2 focuses on pre-Civil War research, and part 3 offers case studies of how three African American families traced their ancestry. Smith and Croom begin by outlining the basic principles of genealogy and advise readers to talk with family elders at reunions and family gatherings. A chapter on special situations regarding black families points to manumission records, free black registers, and tax and land records. Other chapters focus on researching related slaveholding families and post-Civil War mixed-race families. This book, which includes outlines, maps and other materials to assist in research, will be greatly appreciated by black readers searching for their family roots. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
Franklin Carter Smith has been an avid family historian since 1977, having successfully traced his slave ancestry. His article, "Tracing Your African-American Roots," will appear in Family Tree magazine. Emily Croom is the author of several genealogy titles including Unpuzzling Your Past and The Sleuth Book for Genealogists.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First-rate entry in a very good series . . .,
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This review is from: A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors (Genealogist's Guides to Discovering Your Ancestor...) (Paperback)
The volumes in Betterway's "Genealogist's Guide" series have been genrally excellent in leading researchers through the special problems, situations, and resources connected with non-Anglo-European-male ancestors. Anyone, even an otherwise experienced family historian, who has attempted to develop a black lineage more than three or four generations back in the United States knows the historical and social problems involved often are considerable - but they aren't insurmountable, as the authors show. Smith, a Houston librarian with legal training, learned early of the reluctance of his elderly relatives to discuss the "slave days" and of the tendency of black genealogists to end their quest with the 1870 census. He begins with the basics, the stuff we all learned (or should have) in the first year of research, but slants it toward the necessities of African-American history, including the need to deal with frequent name-changes, "consulting the elders," and evaluating family stories (both of which are especially important here). Likewise, in reading the federal census schedules, one must understand what was meant, both officially and locally, by "colored" and "mulatto," the definitions of which changed over time. Military service records, an important resource in most white pedigrees, are more problematic for black lineages before World War II. Church records are proportionately more important. Smith gives considerable space to the use of white (i.e., slaveholding) family records in tracing black families, and to the proper use of the federal census slave schedules -- subjects few of us have much experience with. Finally, he relates all this through three extended cases drawn from his own family research which exemplify the techniques and adjusted mind-sets he explained earlier. They're well written, carefully worked out, and inspirational as well as informative, and are worth the price of admission by themselves.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must have,
By Miss A (Orlando, Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors (Genealogist's Guides to Discovering Your Ancestor...) (Paperback)
This book is so informative that I have also given it as a gift. The case studies were great. I was able to conduct more systematic research after reading this book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors,
By Harold Hicks (Waxhaw, NC, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors (Genealogist's Guides to Discovering Your Ancestor...) (Paperback)
This is an excellant book for anybody wishing to discover their past ancestors in the 19th Century. Good case studies help to keep one focused on reality and not the negative aspects of history.
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