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From:
Subject: [BLACK-L] Re: John and Ola Black
Date: 9 Dec 2001 10:29:46 -0700


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Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/JNE.2ACIB/2279.1

Message Board Post:

If you are researching the black Hairstons, this website may help.
Check website:
www.iath.virginia.edu/vshadow2/govdoc/free.html

PRESS: Free Black Register
PRESS---Registration dates between 1803 and 1845(123K) and Registration dates between 1846 and 1865(126K).

There will be a list of free slave names.
This website gives a description of the individuals, like their complexion, scars, height, ailments, defects, and, sometimes their aliases, etc...

Remember, some slaves did not have last names, especially before 1865. Some of the free blacks listed on this website do not have last names.

You will also find free slave names listed under:
Register of Free Blacks, Staunton County
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
1. Start with what you know about your immediate and extended family.

2. Check your birth certificate, which should have listed your parents names.

3. Check your parents marriage certificate. This will have your parents names, as well as your grandparents names, along with witnesses--who might be kin to you.

4. Check death certificates of parents/grandparents(if they are deceased). On your grandparents death certificate, your great grandparents names should be listed.

5. Speak/interview with older family members and see what they know. (If your grandparents have sister and brothers living, start interviewing them first.) Record the information, even if you write it down.
Try to be organize about what you want to ask your older relatives. Ask for names, dates, places, nicknames, traits, old wise tales, cemeteries/family cemeteries, etc...

6. Sometimes just let them talk about whatever, concerning the family, especially when they were growing up.
Be aware some older family members do not want to speak about the past for whatever reason(s).
Also, do not judge what they may tell you, accept this as history, learn from it, and move on.
Verfiy what they tell you, if possible with documentation.

7. If your great great grandparents died during the 20th century, (about the time most states started keeping death certificates---approximately 1913), their death certificates should be on file.

8. When you check death certificates of relatives, the funeral home should be listed. Call the funeral home or visit, and check their files for potential relatives that they might had buried.
Check the cemeteries also, especially family cemeteries, and record the names off the tombstones, exactly the way it is engraved on the tombstone.
This will also give you additional close relatives to research.

9. Check the census records(Census started from 1790 to the present). You can review census records only up to the year 1920, due to the privacy act.

10. If your relatives worked and filed for a social security number, they might have a file at the social security administration branch. If, so, they can send you a copy for a fee. However, if the relative is living, they will not.


11. Of course, the further back you go in history the harder it will be to find information on a particular relative. You will find it is easier to research the men side of the family(paternal), because they tend to pass on the same surname.

12. Check old photographs of relatives, including the back (there might be writing on them).
Check any old family documentations, and do not forget old family bibles. Some families tend to list the birth, death, and marriages of their families.

13. Write down where you got your information from, references, authors, names, catalog numbers, cities, states, counties, libraries, archives,etc, So, if you need to refer back to any information, you will know where you got it from.

14. Draw up a family tree, that you can read, so you will know what direction to go.
Some people research one family branch at a time, because it can become overwhelming, however, I enjoy the challenge.

Well, this should get you started. Good Luck.

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