Searching Your Family Tree? Here’s How You Can Find Its Roots.

Aallyah Wright
·6 min read

From the inception of the United States, Black families have been displaced and ripped apart. It’s been difficult to track Black lineage because of limited data and written documents that erased Black folks.

Over the years, and more recently, descendants have uncovered their histories, which have led to reclaiming stolen land, holding onto historical land, or finding ways to preserve their heritage. From the new International African American Museum that opened in Charleston, South Carolina, to the 10 Million Names project, there’s a renewed investment into piecing together the unfiltered and important stories of American history.

In our recent story that details a family’s pursuit to get reparations, Capital B learned the importance of sites such as Ancestry in helping Black folks learn more about their family history. Many people don’t know where to start.

The first myth to dispel is that when it comes Black genealogy research, records simply don’t exist. This isn’t true, says Shelley Murphy, coordinator and instructor for the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute and program developer for the Center for Family History at the International African American Museum.

Capital B spoke with Murphy about her work and the resources for families to get started on their journey. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity

Capital B: Can you talk about the work of Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI)?

Shelley Murphy: We are the only one in the country that focuses on African American ancestry. We’re going into our 12th year in existence. Our job is about education and making sure that people that are looking for their ancestors get the right basics when getting started. You see the TV shows that are very popular. You see the genealogy revealed, but you don’t see the behind the scenes in the actual work. It kind of gets a little glorified, that it’s that easy. Well, it’s not that easy. It’s challenging.

Uncovering this history can bring up wounds or trauma for some Black folks. How do you address this in your training?

It comes up all the time. Sometimes it’s an emotional ride. You want to know how to handle them. A lot of interest is going into DNA, and you have to prepare yourself or your family, or both, that sometimes information comes back from DNA that’s not what you know. Maybe people find out that Pie ain’t Pop, or maybe my siblings aren’t my full siblings, or maybe I find out I’m adopted. It’s emotional, but think about who you’re researching for. What did they go through? You’re here because of people going through trials and tribulations in the slave era and so forth. Today, African Americans are still dealing with some of this stuff.

What are some of the first steps for researching heritage?

#1: Start with what you know. 

That means start with yourself. What do you know about your parents? Where were they born? Where did they get married? You want to be satisfied that you got enough information on what you know. You also want to talk to the elders in the family and your siblings if you have them.

#2: Develop questions and find local resources.

As you learn and get educated about doing this type of research, you learn about what records and resources are available. You need to become an expert about that local area where your people were at. People need to exhaust that local community before they start hanging out online, and looking at everything that might be online, which came from the local community. I was in Charleston, South Carolina, and that’s where my people were from. I wanted to know what is in Charleston as in local records. Where’s the courthouse? Where’s all the cemeteries to the funeral homes? Again, if I’m gonna research somewhere in Alabama, or somewhere in Mississippi, I gotta find out what they know there.

#3: Check out federal resources like the Freedmen’s Bureau search portal or U.S. Census Bureau.

We can see records where we hear the voice of our ancestors by looking at the Freedmen’s Bureau. There’s 3.5 million records there that people can search and look for their folks, and find out did they get rashes? Did they go to the hospital? Did they have a labor contract? Who did they have an employment contract with after the Civil War? If I can use the census, I can look at birth, death, and marriage records and so forth.

#4: Connect with others.

Where’s the public libraries? Where’s the historical societies? Are there any genealogy groups around that I can join and start interacting? The goal is to educate people about reconnecting with their ancestors.

We’re in this tense political climate, hyperfocused on the Black erasure. How much more important is Black heritage given this context?

It’s critical. It’s beyond being important. If they keep trying to belittle, or keep throwing everything at the African Americans, then that should tell you how powerful we really are. From one generation to another generation within your family, you have to pass these stories down. One of the biggest things slaveholders did was disrupt the family. We want people to try to reconnect with that family because if they destroy the family, that’s where they gain their control. And they did. If we don’t learn about what came before us, we will repeat it — and we are repeating it, we’re seeing it. Then how you live your life from there on should be contributed in memorial to those that came before us. As far as I’m concerned, Africans and African Americans built this country. They owe us. We need to take pride in that.

Additional Resources to Start, or Continue, Your Journey:

  • U.S. census 1850 and 1860 Slave Schedules provided documentation on enslaved people and their slave owners. Some information you could find: the first name of the enslaved person (not always), number of slaves owned, age, sex, race/color, and number of slaves manumitted, or released from slavery. Here’s more about slave schedules.

  • FamilySearch, a nonprofit genealogical organization, provides free resources and education to build a family tree and search records. Just create an account!

  • National Archives, an independent agency that governs the U.S. government’s records, compiles a host of digital tools and resources — such as catalogs, events, databases, and guides —  for the public and genealogists to explore their family history.

  • Midwest African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI) is hosting its annual three-day workshop filled with 12 classes where attendees learn, research, and gain tools to become family history researchers and genealogists. This year, the paid training will be hybrid and in-person participants will meet in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on July 9-11.

There are several companies that offer DNA kits and testing, such as African Ancestry, 23andMe, AfroRoots, and Ancestry. Do more research to figure out what’s best for you.

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