Visit our Genealogy & Local History page to search Ancestry Library Edition, Fold3 Library Edition, Black Life in America, and other resources that can help you research your family history. These sources are especially useful for tracing your family back to the 1870s.
The following resources can help you trace your African American family members even further.
Compiled by Pamela Lyons Brinegar, CG.
Getting Started
African American Genealogical Research
This Library of Congress video provides a good overview of how to begin your research.
African American Genealogy
A guide to getting started with African American genealogy and an overview of resources available at the New York Public Library.
Needles and Threads: Piecing Together African American Families
Explore the many areas of African American research you may be overlooking and provide some answers to puzzles you may have in your own family history. Sign up for a free account on Ancestry Academy to begin this course.
FamilySearch Resources
FamilySearch is a free, genealogical website provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
African American Online Genealogy Records
Links to African American online databases and indexes where you can search for birth records, marriage records, death records, and other resources.
African American Genealogy
A FamilySearch wiki about African American genealogy. Includes information about researching African Americans in each state.
Genealogy Research Forms
Worksheets that will help you organize your research.
Kentucky Resources
Black Ancestor Database
A database of “over 90,000 records about Black people, both enslaved and free, who lived throughout Kentucky. It includes data from censuses, wills, tax records, religious records, and military sources.”
African American Genealogy Group of Kentucky
A membership organization dedicated to sharing “strategies and findings” in African American genealogy.
Notable Kentucky African Americans Database
Brief entries of notable African Americans with Kentucky roots. A project of Reinette Jones and the University of Kentucky Libraries.
Free African American Owners of Enslaved Persons in 1830 Kentucky
This list is available on the Notable Kentucky African Americans Database.
Kentucky Digital Newspapers
Kentucky newspapers that have been digitized by the University of Kentucky Libraries.
Kentucky Historical Society Suggested Resources
This page from the Kentucky Historical Society links to publications and research, archival collections, oral histories, and more.
African American Primary Resources in the UK Special Collections Research Center
This finding aid explains some of the resources available at the UK Special Collections Research Center.
Slavery in Kentucky 1792-1865
A history of slavery in Kentucky.
Ohio and Virginia Resources
The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
A digital library from the Ohio History Connection about African American life.
Virginia Museum of History and Culture – Guide to African American Manuscripts
A guide to the African American manuscript collections at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Manuscripts include letters, diaries, account books, and other papers.
Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative (pre-1865)
Provides digital access to records that document some of the lived experiences of enslaved and free Black and multiracial people in the Library of Virginia’s collections.
Military Records
Civil War Service Records of Union Colored Troops, 1863-1865
Search this index on FamilySearch when you create a free account. You can also search it using library database Fold3, when you can access on our Genealogy & Local History page.
Kentucky U.S. Colored Troops Database
This database from Reckoning, Inc. focuses on “the lives of African American men who either enlisted in the Union Army in Kentucky, or were born in Kentucky and enlisted elsewhere.” The project aims to create in-depth records for all of these soldiers.
USCT Muster and Descriptive Roll for KY 7th, 8th and 9th Districts
United States Colored Troops muster rolls from the Kentucky Historical Society.
United States Colored Troops in the Civil War
A FamilySearch research wiki with background information on the United States Colored Troops.
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System, National Park Service
An index of the men who served during the Civil War, including United States Colored Troops.
Records of Military Agencies Re African Americans Post-World War I to Korean War (PDF, 601.12 KB)
A paper that “describes records about African American military participation in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War held at the National Archives’ facilities in Washington, DC, and College Park, MD.”
Other military records from the National Archives
Information about how to research and request military service records from the National Archives.
United States Freedmen’s Bureau
Search Freedmen’s Bureau records on FamilySearch with a free account. The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War to supervise relief efforts.
Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874
Freedmen’s Bureau, Records of Freedmen’s Complaints, 1865-1872
Freedmen’s Bureau Ration Records,1865-1872
Records of Freedmen, 1865-1872
Freedmen’s Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
Freedmen’s Bureau, Land and Property Records, 1865-1872
Freedmen’s Bureau Labor Contracts, Indenture and Apprenticeship Records, 1865-1872
Freedmen’s Branch Records, 1872-1878
District of Columbia, Freedmen’s Bureau Field Office Records, 1863-1872
Search for Ancestors in Slavery Records and Other Documents
Christine’s African American Genealogy Website
Find transcribed wills, mortality schedules, tombstones, and other documents.
Digital Library on American Slavery
The Digital Library on American Slavery (DLAS) compiles “independent collections focused upon race and slavery in the American South….” Documents include court petitions, runaway slave notices, and slave deeds.
Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade
“Enslaved.org is a discovery hub that centers the lives of named enslaved and free[d] individuals who are made searchable and discoverable through a large and growing number of datasets and digital projects.”
African American Digital Archives
Search the digital archives of the International African American Museum. Documents include family photos, funeral programs and obituaries, family Bible records, and United States Colored Troops pension applications.
Slavery Era Insurance Registry
California insurance documents from the slavery era. These document “insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves.”
Slave Archival Collection
Collects names, information, and photos of “enslaved ancestors from living descendants across the country.”
National Archives
African Americans and the Federal Census, 1790–1930 (PDF, 117.7 KB)
Explains what kind of information you’ll find about African Americans on the federal census, 1850 and 1860 slave schedules, and other documents.
History Hub – African American Records
Browse or post a question about African American records on History Hub, a support community managed by the National Archives for researchers, citizen historians, and archival professionals.
Daughters of the American Revolution
Forgotten Patriots – African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War
According to the website, “The second edition of Forgotten Patriots (2008) identifies over 6,600 names of African Americans and American Indians who contributed to American Independence….”
Slave Narratives and Interviews with Formerly Enslaved People
Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
A Library of Congress collection of interviews with 22 formerly enslaved people.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1938
A Library of Congress collection of interviews with formerly enslaved people.
North American Slave Narratives
“Collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.”
Research Examples
Historic Pathways
The website of researcher Elizabeth Shown Mills.
“Documenting President Barack Obama’s Maternal African-American Ancestry”
A paper from Ancestry.com that uses DNA results and other records to trace President Barack Obama’s genealogy.
Historical Background and Scholarship
SlaveVoyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
“A collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas.”
Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation
“A digital academic journal that publishes datasets and accompanying data articles about the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants from the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries.”
US Statutes Concerning Slavery
Runaway Slave Laws in Border States, 1794-1846
Last updated 2/24/25.