Resources

Helpful books, websites, and digital collections for researching and understanding the lives of your African Ancestors

***last updated 9/5/19*** 


Florida 

FloridaMemory.com: Documents, photos, audio, and video relating to Florida's history and culture.

George A. Smathers Library: Digital resources covering all of Florida's history.

The East Florida Papers: Searchable index with brief summaries of individual files. If you would like to view an entire document the East Florida Papers are available on microfilm at the University of Florida, the St. Augustine Historical Society, via inter library loan, and from the Library of Congress (see Miscellaneous). Learn more about what kind of documents this collection contains here.

The Fernandina Express  Digital scans of surviving issues from a conservative newspaper published in Nassau County. Covers the years 1880-1884


***LaFlorida.org Colonial Florida's history. Resources include maps, documents, photos, and a searchable population database.***

Mules and Men by Zora Neal Hurston, amazon 

Zora Neal Hurston's field recordings from Jacksonville, Eatonville, Calhoun County, Ybor City, and Belle Glade for the Federal Writers' Project


The Cana Sanctuary by Frank Marotti, amazon


Georgia

GlynnGen.com and the Ancestry.com tree "Coastal Georgia Families" by site owner Amy Hedrick 

Early Days of Coastal Georgia by Margaret Kate Davis, amazon

***Major Butler's Legacy: Five Generations of a Slaveholding Family by Malcom Bell Jr., amazon*** See also The Weeping Time 

Alabama

Finding African Ancestors: This website by genealogist Dr. Chris Nordmann contains information on the free and enslaved people of Mobile, the baptism records of the Chastang family and their slaves, and the Creole Fire Department. Click more at the top right of the site navigation bar.

They Say the Wind is Red: The Alabama Choctaw- Lost in Their Own Land by Jacqueline Matte, amazon 


Spanish Colonies 

Slavesocieties.org Scans of church records from Cuba, Brazil, Spanish Florida, and Colombia that cover baptisms, marriage, and death records for both free and enslaved people of color as well as whites. Most records are in Spanish but some very early ones are in Latin.

Black Society in Spanish Florida by Jane G. Landers, amazon

Heaven's Soldiers, Free People of Color and the Spanish Legacy in Antebellum Florida by Frank Marotti, amazon 

Spanish Pathways in Florida edited by Ann L. Henderson and Gary R. Mormino


Spain

Harold B. Lee Library Euro Docs : Miscellaneous historical Spanish documents.


French Colonies 

Atlantic Creoles in the Age of  Revolutions by Jane G. Landers, amazon

Creoles Of Color: Gulf South by James H. Dormon, amazon 


France

Harold B. Lee Library Euro Docs: Miscellaneous historical French documents.


British Colonies

Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and the American Revolution by Simon Schama, amazon


Miscellaneous

Library of Congress Duplication Services: Search for and order copies of documents and images in different formats from their vast holdings. 

The Race and Slavery Petitions Project:  Searchable database with detailed information on slaves, slave holders and free people of color gathered from legal documents from 1775-1867.

***Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Index of pre 1865 documents held by the Library of Virginia. View scans of newspaper clippings, personal log books, voter registries, and lists of free poc as well as the Unknown No Longer records of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.***

***Black Loyalist: Scans and information relating to the Book of Negroes which contains biographical information about African American Loyalists who left New York in 1783. A thousand of  whom were from Norfolk, Virginia and the surrounding the areas. ***

Slaves, Subjects, and Subversives: Blacks in Colonial Latin America edited by Jane G. Landers and Barry M. Robinson, amazon

William Johnson's Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro, amazon

***A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life by Allyson Hobbs, amazon***

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project 1936-1938: Contains images and interviews with formerly enslaved people conducted in Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. 

U.S. Genealogy Records Directory: Genealogy resource lists by state, county, and city.


Nontraditional Research Methods and Reconnecting With Your Ancestors

Medicine Stories Podcast Primarily a podcast about herbalism but several episodes cover ancestry and research topics. Episodes 26, 37, 44, and 52 are personal favorites but all are worth a listen.

Sanyuestelle.com: From her site bio: "Sanyu Estelle otherwise known as The Word Witch, is a soothsayer, taoist and sarcastic social justice warrior."

Ancestral Medicine: Rituals for Personal and Family Healing by Dr. Daniel Foor, amazon 



I am not affiliated with nor have I been compensated by any of the websites or individuals listed. 

No comments:

Touchy Subjects: Native Ancestry

First off a disclaimer: None of the information in this post is presented with the intention of helping people to earn enrollment to any o...