Happy Women’s History Month!
Tracing African American female ancestors poses significant challenges. The legacy of slavery has left gaps in the historical records, and the practice of women adopting their husband’s surnames after marriage complicates research efforts. These intertwined factors hinder uncovering maiden names and vital historical records.
Before the Civil War
Eighty years passed from 1790, when the first United States federal census was taken, and 1870, the first census that enumerated formerly enslaved African Americans. Before 1870, only free African Americans were named in the United States federal censuses. On the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules, only the slaveholders were named. Slavery limited record-keeping for enslaved African Americans, impacting their lineages and genealogy.
Knowing the name of the slaveholder is essential. Slaves were considered property, so you need to search the slaveholder’s property. First names and ages of enslaved ancestors may be found in the slaveholder’s deeds, wills, and probate records, indicating whether they were sold, freed, or transferred to others. In wills and probate records, enslaved people are bequeathed to children and grandchildren. African American women often retain the same first names used during slavery, as recorded in the 1870 Federal Census. Analyzing and comparing these names is crucial to determine if they are the same person.
Plantation records can lead to the discovery of records of transactions that include first names and descriptions of African American ancestors. You may get lucky like me. I received a tip from a cousin who said that the names and birthdates of our Morgan and Weathers family members were in the book The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom 1725-1925 by Herbert G. Gutman. I went to Amazon to purchase a used copy and discovered I had it, and it was on a shelf in my office. I browsed through the book and found the name of the plantation, Stirling Plantation, and its owner, Lewis Stirling. The Stirling Plantation is in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, known as the Wakefield Plantation. My paternal ancestors were enslaved on this large sugar and cotton plantation.
Gutman’s book includes charts and tables of family and kinship structures, naming patterns, and a few illustrations of birth registers, which had a complete birth record – day, month, year – for my great-grandmother and three of her siblings.
I researched and discovered that the Stirling Family Papers were at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I hired a professional genealogist to go to the library to find and copy Stirling’s records. The genealogist found 24 pages of birth records, including the names and birthdates of my first, second, and third great-grandparents. I added 28 people, including three adult females, three adult males, and 22 children, to my family and am back six generations.
Check out county and town histories, slaveholders’ biographies, and memoirs; they may help locate your ancestors.
After the Civil War
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established to assist formerly enslaved people and poor whites affected by the Civil War. The Bureau’s functions included supervising labor contracts between planters and freedmen, managing disputes and complaints, establishing schools, issuing rations and clothing, operating hospitals, legalizing marriages formed during slavery, helping locate family members, and much more. These records provide details about enslavement and personal narratives.
The Freedmen’s Bureau worked with African American soldiers and their heirs to receive back pay, bounty payments, and pensions. It also provided information about the soldiers’ wives if they were married. Service records and veterans’ benefits can be obtained by emailing a request for Form NATF 80 to inquire@nara.gov.
Bible records were kept mainly by females. They recorded births, marriages, and deaths before the states registered them. You may find postcards, letters, prayer cards, funeral programs, and dried flowers tucked inside.
Researching African American Female Ancestors can be difficult but not impossible. Stay tuned for more sources about your African American female ancestors.