Introduction to Black Genealogy

The following article was first published in the ISGS Quarterly, Volume 10, Number 1, p. 1, Spring 1978.

INTRODUCTION TO BLACK GENEALOGY

In this issue of the ISGS Quarterly two articles appear on black genealogy. One is by Walter R. Sanders, R. 3, Box 130A, Litchfield, IL 62056 and is entitled "The Negro in Montgomery County, Illinois," and the other is by Mary Afton and H. Obert Anderson, Box 493, Ridgway, IL 62979 and is entitled “Register of Slaves (Indentures) and Emancipation of Slaves.” The latter article is first of a four-part serial sequence which will appear in the four quarterlies of 1978.

Gale Research Company, Book Tower, Detroit, MI 48226 has available fr $18.00 a book entitled Black Genesis. This book will assist black people in America to learn more about themselves by discovering more about their ancestors. The book assists those seeking primary sources of information to locate them and is a “how-to” guide.

Queens College, City University of New York, House 37, 153-37 61st Road, Flushing, NY 11367 has an Ethnic Genealogy Center in the Department of Special Programs. Some of the available materials include:

Slave Ship Records for New York City, 1715-1765;
Extracts of slave names found in New York City Surrogate Court Wills;
New York Coroner's Reports 1790-1850 with racial designations given;
Newspapers with articles on arrival dates of slave ships, runaway slave advertisements, sales of slaves, and information on free blacks.

For those not students on the campus, Alice Eichholz and James M. Rose, co-directors of the Ethnic Genealogy Center, are active in speaking to community groups. They have several publications. The indexing and extracting of black genealogical source materials is a priority project of this Center.

Please submit articles to the editor concerning black genealogy. Family histories suitable for publication in this quarterly of ethnic groups in Illinois, particularly for the period 1820-1870, will be appreciated.

--Carl Weatherbee, Editor

Acknowledgement: A big thank you to ISGS members Howard Manthei and Thomas MacEntee for scanning and transcribing this ISGS Quarterly article.