< Research Guides Home

When researching an African American family you start by using the same sources as other researchers. If you're just starting, see our list of Genealogy Research Guides for more information. This guide focuses on additional resources of special interest for African American families.

Researcher's Guides

• African American Heritage, http://africanamericanheritage.proquest.com, contains Black Genesis, a state-by-state resource guide, as well as other reference and how-to guides, a census index and images, some marriage and cohabitation records, and Freedmen's Bureau records. Contact your local librarian to learn how to access this database from home.
• African-American Research, http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/index.html, by the National Archives.
• Africana Heritage Project, http://www.africanaheritage.com/.
• AfriGeneas, http://www.afrigeneas.com, includes a manual for beginners, a mailing list and other features. Use the 'Site Map" upper right.
• Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet: African-American, http://www.CyndisList.com/african.htm.
• A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors, by Franklin C. Smith and Emily Croom. Call no. 929.1 Smi NCC, at G, J, and in the circulating collection.
• African American Gateway, http://www.genealogycenter.info/africanamerican/.
• Military Resources: Blacks in the Military, http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/blacks-in-military.htm.
  For more on this topic search our Catalog by Subject for African American Soldiers.

Some Source Materials

Note: See our guide if you have not worked with census materials: The United States Census for Genealogists.

Separate "slave schedules" were created as part of the 1850 and 1860 censuses. These list the name of the slave owner and give details on the number of slaves owned by age and sex. They do NOT give the names of individual slaves. Both actual images of these schedules and indexing are on the Ancestry Library Edition database available at the libraries.

• Lincoln County: Record of Freedmen's Marriages, 1866. Microfilm. NCC at G and J. Also known as "Cohabitation Records".
• Saint Benedict Catholic Cemetery [Gaston County], comp. by Richard E. Wilson. Also known as the Black Catholic Cemetery. Call no. 929.5 Sai NCC. Only 3 pages long. Multiple copies, see our Catalog for locations.
• Somebody Knows My Name: Marriages of Freed People in North Carolina, County by County. Call no. 929.3 Whi NCC. G and J.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, formed at the end of the Civil War, created many records containing the names of newly freed slaves in the period before the 1870 census.

• Heritage Quest has the records of the Freedman's Bank (1865-1874) among their resources. The bank branches were primarily in large and coastal cities. HQ is available through NC Live. NC Live is available at all the county libraries or you can use it at home. To log in at home, choose "Gaston-Lincoln Regional" from the drop-down and type in your library card number.
• An Index of African Americans Identified in Selected Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, by Jacqueline A. Lawson. Call no. 929.1 Law NCC. G and J.
• Freedmen's Bureau Online, information and transcriptions of records at http://freedmensbureau.com.

Between 1936 and 1938, writers and journalists working for the Works Progress Adminstration interviewed over 2300 former slaves. (It appears that none of the people interviewed were from Gaston or Lincoln Counties.) These interviews are available in several ways with different approaches to searching:

• As a database through Ancestry Library Edition, available at the libraries. This includes a keyword search.
• Born in Slavery, the Library of Congress site is supplemented with 500 photographs. At http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html.
• American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography, a database with added indexes available through NC Live. To log in to NC Live at home, choose "Gaston-Lincoln Regional" from the drop-down and type in your library card number.

• Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia..., 3rd ed., by Paul Heinegg. Call no. 929.3 Hei NCC. G and J. Also see his website, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, http://www.freeafricanamericans.com.
• North Carolina Slaves and Free Persons of Color (4 vols.) Call no. 306.362 Byr NCC. G and J. There is only one entry for Gaston County.
• Guide to African-American documentary resources in North Carolina, http://www.upress.virginia.edu/epub/pyatt/index.html and its companion publication, Afro-American sources in Virgina: a guide to manuscripts, http://www.upress.virginia.edu/plunkett/mfp.html.

Family & Local Histories: Examples

• African-American Fronebergers of Gaston County Call no. 929.2 Fronebergers Gar NCC, The Descendants of Sandy Hoyle Call no. 929.2 Hoyle Gar NCC, and Gardin: A Family History Call no. 929.2 Gardin Gar NCC. All written by Francis Gardin.
• African-American Generations: (v. 1) Gaston-Lincoln 1763-1880 and (v.2 ) 1865-1910., by Rudolph Young and others. Call no. 929.1 You NCC. G and J.
• Footprints on the Rough Side of the Mountain: An African-American Niche in the History of a Southern Textile City. Call no. 975.00496 Han NCC. G, J, and circulating collection. About Belmont.
• The Heritage of Blacks in North Carolina, volume 1. Call no. 301.451 H NCC. G and J.
• Our Own Story: An African-American History of Lincoln County, North Carolina, comp. by Rudolph Young. Call no. 929.1 You NCC. G and J.
• Somerset Homecoming: Recovering a Lost Heritage, by Dorothy Spruill Redford. Call no. 929.3 R NC. In the circulating collection. Recommended for its description of her research.

Finding More

There are many other books in the Library's collection which contain information on African American genealogy and history. Search our Catalog by Subject:

Note: These sites are provided for informational purposes. The Library assumes no responsibility for the content of sites maintained by other organizations or persons.