GSP - African-American Resources

Guide to African-American Genealogy and History Resources

Prepared by Claire Keenan Agthe for the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania

13 February 2008

Online Information about African-American Genealogy

The Family History Library (Mormon)'s African American Family History Resources
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp?page=home/welcome/site_resources.asp

Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet (links by topic)
http://www.CyndisList.com/african.htm

RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees: Ethnic Roots
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson25.htm

RootsWeb Home Page
http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/

Guide to African American Resources at the Pennsylvania State Archives (in Harrisburg) (for sale)
http://www.pabookstore.com/gutoafamreat.html

I. Resources for Researching Individuals

(Summary of person-specific records; for other materials available, see the websites listed)

A. Philadelphia Area

African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Archives has material from 1792-1996, including organizational and sacramental records of births, marriages, and deaths.
http://www.aecst.org/

American Baptist Historical Society. Valley Forge archives and library closed; relocating to Atlanta.
http://www.baptisthistory.us/

American Philosophical Society Library. Slavery collection (1773-1888) of the David Library includes bills of sale and wills involving slaves, and writings concerning slavery.
http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/guides/afam/

Atwater Kent Museum. Oral histories of African American who migrated north prior to WWII.
http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/

Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. See Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Berean Institute Library. 1500 books, pamphlets, and newspapers on African American history.
http://www.bereaninstitute.edu/

Civil War Library and Museum. African Americans in the Civil War and the military.
http://www.netreach.net/~cwlm/

Germantown Historical Society. Includes books, papers, periodicals, guides to African American genealogy, and oral histories regarding African Americans and players in the Negro Baseball Leagues.
http://www.germantownhistory.org/

Haverford College, Magill Library, Special Collections. Photos, microfilmed records of Quaker charitable organizations (orphanages, missions, schools) for African Americans. (See also Swarthmore College, Friends Historical Library, below).
http://www.haverford.edu/library/special/

Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Records of the Mother Bethel AME Church, 1822-1972, and American Negro Historical Society, 1790-1905. Collection of the Balch Institute include records of the American Colonization Society, 1792-1964 and Maryland Colonization Society (emigration to Liberia), baptism and marriage records of St. Peter Claver RC Church, 1795-1896, WPA Slave Narrative Collection (slaves from Indiana, Texas, North and South Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida) (see also American Memory Collection (Library of Congress), below), newspapers and periodicals from across the US.
http://www.hsp.org

Lincoln University, Langston Hughes Memorial Library. Includes yearbooks and newspapers.
http://www.lincoln.edu/library/specialcollections/index.html

Mother Bethel AME Church, Richard Allen Museum Archives, 1749-Present. Copies of the Christian Recorder, 1854-1902; funeral programs. (See also Historical Society of Pennsylvania, above).

National Archives and Records Administration. Introduction and links to African American research in the US National Archives; online collections and catalogs.
http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/

Philadelphia (RC) Archdiocesan Historical Research Center. African American newspapers from various US cities, records of St. Peter Claver church and school, 1926-1994 (including roll books 1926-1980).
http://www.rc.net/philadelphia/pahrc/

Presbyterian Historical Society. Partial records of African American Synods and Presbyteries, 1873-1983 (Atlantic (1873-1965), Blue Ridge (1913-1957), Canadian (1912-1913), and Catawba (1888-1988) synods); church histories.
http://www.history.pcusa.org/

St. Peter Claver (RC) Church and School. See Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center.

Swarthmore College, Friends Historical Library. 1847 census of Philadelphia African Americans (online). Records of Quaker schools, orphanages, and other charitable organizations, including orphanage records (including children's names), 1822-1979; organizational records of the Association of Friends for the Free Instruction of Adult Colored Persons, 1789-1905; African American mission and school records, 1846-1945; administration records of the Friends' Freedmen's Association, 1863-1982; records of the Richard Humphreys Foundation for the education of African Americans, 1837-1977.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/fhl.xml

Temple University. Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection: slave narratives, Underground Railroad collection. Urban Archives: clipping file and morgue of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, c. 1920-1982. (Online) Directory of African American Collections in Greater Philadelphia and Selected Suburban Areas (slightly outdated; many non-genealogical collections).
http://library.temple.edu/collections/blockson/
http://library.temple.edu/collections/urbana/
http://library.temple.edu/collections/urbana/african-american.jsp?bhcp=1

B. Outside the Philadelphia Area

The Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland (MD State Archives). Lists of source materials available in the archives, Underground Railroad materials. Links to Archives of Maryland Online, with index to freedom records, city directories, provincial land records, military records for the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Vital Records Indexing Project, slave statistics at abolition, and more.
http://www.mdslavery.net/

Valley of the Shadow (UVA) (Augusta County, VA and Franklin Co., PA). Search censuses and veteran records (1860 population, agricultural, manufacturing, and slaveowner schedules; 1870 population, agricultural, and manufacturing schedules; 1890 veterans schedule; Southern Claims Commission Papers), tax digests (including the Free Black Registry), newspapers, church records, maps, diaries, compiled military (CW) service records, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Freedman's Bureau records, and more.
http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu

II. Historical and Cultural Resources

(less likely to help trace individuals, but gives insight into the historical events and culture)

A. Philadelphia Area

African American Museum in Philadelphia. Photos, Black Panther memorabilia, Good Samaritans business records (1880-1940s), artifacts, and more.
http://www.aampmuseum.org/

Eastern Baptist Theological Society. Materials about the African American Church and culture.

Easton Area Public Library. Microfilm from the collection of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. (See also New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, below).
http://www.eastonpl.org/

B. Outside the Philadelphia Area

American Memory Collection (Library of Congress). Slave narratives (Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938; interviews, 1932-1975), The Church in the Southern Black Community, 1780-1925 (see aso “Documenting the American South” collection at UNC); pamphlets, sheet music, ephemera, more.
http://memory.loc.gov

“Documenting the American South” (UNC Chapel Hill). The Church in the Southern Black Community (sermons, church history, religious studies, religious history, biography of religious leaders and slaves, Liberian history (see also American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress, above), North American Slave Narratives (all slave narratives published in English up to 1920, also bios and fiction)
http://docsouth.unc.edu/

New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Online digital images and texts of selected materials; describes other collections -- the most relevant being the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division (history, civil rights, arts, slavery, and more) and the Photographs and Prints Division (slavery, Civil War, organizations, religions, migrants, and more) – online exhibitions, information about public programs, and much more.
http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html