• Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route - (Book - Amazon.com) : In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman journeys along a slave route in Ghana, following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast. She retraces the history of the Atlantic slave trade from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy.
  This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• Love Cemetery: Unburying the Secret History of Slaves - (Book - Amazon.com) : Love Cemetery is the story of one woman trying to come to terms with racism––on both personal and public levels. When China Galland visited her childhood hometown in east Texas, she learned of an unmarked cemetery for slaves––Love Cemetery. Her ensuing quest to reclaim the ground, to mark it, unearths racial wounds that have never completely healed.
  This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• My Confederate Kinfolk: A Twenty-First Century Freedwoman Discovers Her Roots - (Book - Amazon.com) : Beloved novelist and playwright Thulani Davis takes a journey through her ancestral history-and finds tartan plaid, unlikely lovers, and Confederate soldiers.
  This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• The Death Care Industry : African American Cemeteries and Funeral Homes - (Book - Amazon.com) : The Death Care Industry African American Cemeteries and Funeral Homes This is a book about the living. Through the use of diverse sources, including oral history, historical text, news articles, and archaeological insights, the authors weave together the lives of communities of ancestors and communities of living descendants. The story of cemeteries is not unlike that of the people who create them. Indeed the authors tell us that struggle and conflict often surround African American efforts to preserve their cemeteries. The book tells of the great variety of African American cemeteries in all parts of the continent. The descriptive documentation of the whereabouts of African American cemeteries is important enough, and that is only the framework of this compelling book.
  This book may also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom). Click on link for details. -

• The Sweeter the Juice : A Family Memoir in Black and White - (Book - Amazon.com) : Tracing six generations of one family, both those who lived as blacks and those who assimililated into white society, Haizlip's chronicle mirrors the emotional, social, and racial journeys made by countless American families.
  This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• Advertisements for Runaway Slaves in Virginia, 1801-1820 (Studies in African American History and Culture) - (Book - Amazon.com) : This collection of runaway slave notices from Virginia highlights the plight of African Americans fleeing bondage in early nineteenth century Virginia. Presented in modern type, the advertisements appear exactly as published. The preface situates these advertisements historically, and indicates the significance of the collection for studies of African American history, the history of slavery, and resistance to slavery in early American culture. The advertisements are presented chronologically and index by slave and master. This collection of historical documentation will be valuable to scholars interested in the history of slavery and resistance in America.
  Also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• African American Genealogy Auctions - (eBay) -

• African American Lives (2006) - (DVD - Amazon.com) : Renowned scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., W.E.B. DuBois professor of the Humanities and chair of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University, takes Alex Haley’s Roots saga to a whole new level. Using genealogy and DNA science, Dr. Gates tells the personal stories of eight accomplished African Americans, tracing their roots through American history and back to Africa. Participants include Dr. Ben Carson, Whoopi Goldberg, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Dr. Mae Jemison, Quincy Jones, Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Chris Tucker and Oprah Winfrey.
  Also available from Amazon.ca. -

• Black Genealogy - (Book - Amazon.com) : First published in 1977, Black Genealogy remains a unique guide guide among standard genealogical references. Author Charles Blockson, a noted genealogist and African American historian, traced his own family roots back through the 18th century. along his journey, he discovered obstacles and advantages that make searching for Black family history a rewarding experience.
  Also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• Black Indian Genealogy Research: African-American Ancestors among the Five Civilized Tribes - (Book - Amazon.com) : By Angela Y. Walton-Raji. Where to find and how to use the Indian Freedman Records; discusses Black Indians and Tri-Racial groups from the Upper South, and has added two lists of family names: Freedmen Surnames from the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes, and Surnames of Tri-Racial families of the South. -

• Black Roots : A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree -

  (Book - Amazon.com) : Written for the general reader, Burroughs details the best methods and research techniques for mapping family histories, and explains how to navigate the endless labyrinths of myths, stories, omissions, and official records. Using case histories as examples, Burroughs outlines six phases of African American genealogy: oral histories; family research to 1870; the identification of the last slave owner; the research of the owner's background; a trip to Africa; and research in Canada and the Caribbean. This book may also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links to check for availability.

  -

• Cane River - (Book - Amazon.com) : Lalita Tademy's riveting family saga chronicles four generations of women born into slavery along the Cane River in Louisiana. It is also a tale about the blurring of racial boundaries: great-grandmother Elisabeth notices an unmistakable "bleaching of the line" as first her daughter Suzette, then her granddaughter Philomene, and finally her great-granddaughter Emily choose (or are forcibly persuaded) to bear the illegitimate offspring of the area's white French planters. In many cases these children are loved by their fathers, and their paternity is widely acknowledged. However, neither state law nor local custom allows them to inherit wealth or property, a fact that gives Cane River much of its narrative drive. Read more... -

• Carry Me Back: A Family and National History of Freedom and Slavery - (Book - Amazon.com) : The author shares with us times of triumph and achievement, both for her family and black Americans, as well as those times when they suffered from prejudice and discrimination. Without bitterness, she explores and analyzes colorism among both whites and blacks, and traces the path by which she came to reject color bias, and to realize her true identity as a woman of multi-ethnic background, as an American, and as a human being whose strength and hope spring from ancestors. -

• Cash For Blood: The Baltimore to New Orleans Domestic Slave Trade - (Book - Amazon.com) : In 1808 it became illegal to import slaves from Africa, however Maryland and Virginia were experiencing a "superabundance" of slaves at this time and slave owners were faced with the options of renting, freeing, or selling their excess labor. Freed slaves gravitated to large cities, and by 1810, Baltimore, MD, had the largest free African American population anywhere in the US. Baltimore was also a major center for the sale of slaves between 1800-1860. "Thousands of families and individuals were shipped from the city on their ‘final passage’ and almost certain separation in the South. The market was vast, the players plentiful, and the victims plenteous. This is their story."
  This book may also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links to check for availability. -

• District of Columbia Free Negro Registers, 1821-1861 - (Book - Amazon.com) : Dorothy S. Provine. Abstracts of official registrations of free status by non-slave African Americans. Four of the five original volumes have survived; the one for 1846-1855 is missing. All genealogical data in the registers is included. 1996, 728 pp., 2 vols., 8.5x11, illus., bibl., append., index, paper. -

• Finding a Place Called Home - (Book - Amazon.com) : A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity. In a comprehensive work on the subject of black genealogy--with up-to-date advice on recovering histories lost through slavery--Dr. Woodtor helps sidestep the roadblocks that often hinder black genealogy. -

• Finding Oprah's Roots - Finding Your Own - (Book - Amazon.com) : Finding Oprah’s Roots will not only endow readers with a new appreciation for the key contributions made by history’s unsung but also equip them with the tools to connect to pivotal figures in their own past. A roadmap through the intricacies of public documents and online databases, the book also highlights genetic testing resources that can make it possible to know one’s distant tribal roots in Africa.
  This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• Finding Oprah's Roots - Finding Your Own - (DVD - Amazon.com) : Also available from Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on link for details. -

• Finding Your African-American Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide - (Book - Amazon.com) -

• Finding Your People : An African-American Guide to Discovering Your Roots -

  (Book - Amazon.com) : A comprehensive guide to public records, alternative sources, and other documents, this handbook offers exciting new ways to unveil the past. Includes locating lineage and pedigree documents. Also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada)

  -

• Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware from the Colonial Period to 1810 - (Book - Amazon.com) : Free African Americans of Maryland and Delaware is a new work that will intrigue genealogists and historians alike. First and foremost, Mr. Heinegg has assembled genealogical evidence on more than 300 Maryland and Delaware black families (naming nearly 6,000 individuals), with copious documentation from the federal censuses of 1790-1810 and colonial sources consulted at the Maryland Hall of Records, county archives, and other repositories. The author offers documentation proving that most of these free black families descended from mixed-race children who were the progeny of white women and African American men. While some of these families would claim Native American ancestry, Mr. Heinegg offers evidence to show that they were instead the direct descendants of mixed-race children.
  May also be available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada) -

• Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820 - (Book - Genealogical.com) : Now published in two volumes, and 300 pages longer than the Fourth Edition, Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820 consists of detailed genealogies of 600 free black families that originated in Virginia and migrated to North and/or South Carolina from the colonial period to about 1820. The families under investigation represent nearly all African Americans who were free during the colonial period in Virginia and North Carolina. -

• Generations: A Record Book of Our Family -

  (Book - Amazon.com) : Honor your African-American heritage in this beautiful hardbound keepsake: Display your photos; Document your family tree; Commemorate your traditions, personal stories, celebrations and events. These colorfully illustrated pages are an inspiration to record your lives and celebrate your roots.

  -

• Listening For Our Past : A Lay Guide To African American Oral History Interviewing - (Book - Amazon.com) : Sprinkled with 6 family photographs and some personal anecdotal accounts, this 40-page book (actually a work booklet) can be especially useful for African-ancestored people interested in getting started at researching their own genealogies and family histories. -

• Roots Recovered: The How to Guide for Tracing African-American and West Indian Roots Back to Africa and Going There for Free or on a Shoestring Budget - (Book - Amazon.com) : Valuable information specific for African travel and tracing African genealogy back to Africa using traditional methods, the Internet and DNA technology. Uses travel as a vehicle for learning and understanding history and the Black self-concept.
  This book is also available from Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom) and Amazon.ca (Canada). Click on links for details. -

• Slave Genealogy: A Research Guide with Case Studies - (Book - Amazon.com) : By David H. Streets. Three case studies (drawn from the records of Wayne County, Kentucky) demonstrate research methods and types of analysis to be employed. 1986, 8.5x11, 90 pp., bibl., paper. -

• The African American Cemeteries of Petersburg, Virginia

• The Afro-American Griot Speaks: Afro-American Names

• The Book of African Names - The growing usage of African names in the United States makes this book appealing for those who want to understand the meaning, proper usage and significance of African names. Asante provides the historical rationale and the proper translations and usage of African names from the four corners of the continent. -

Next 30

Advanced Search
Also visit ABCgenealogy.com A comprehensive directory of genealogy Web sites.

Home | United States | United Kingdom | Canada | Ireland | Surnames