Library of Congress
African American Family Histories and Genealogies: A Resource Guide
The Library of Congress has a large collection of published family histories pertaining to African Americans. This guide is a selected alphabetical listing of these family histories and other subjects relating to the African American experience in America. Among the subjects covered are abolitionists, American Loyalists, and revolutionaries to masters and slaves, freedmen, Civil War soldiers, and Cherokee Indians. In addition to published genealogies, the researcher will find references to handbooks on planning family reunions, abstracts of newspaper notices, and even some abstracts of funeral programs.
National Archives-Genealogy: Ethnic Heritage Links
A selection of links to websites that are useful for ethnic genealogical research.
Enoch Pratt Free Library
African American genealogical research is different from other ethnic backgrounds. Because slaves were considered property, they were prohibited from reading, writing, attending school, legally marrying, owning land, owning a business, voting, and participating in many other activities that generate records on which much genealogical research is based. If you’re running into some brick walls with your genealogical research, or just don’t know how to get started, this guide should be helpful to you.
Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society
The Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) was founded in 1977 to foster and encourage historical and genealogical studies of families of all ethnic groups, with special emphasis upon Afro-Americans.