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The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library brings to the
community a FREE unforgettable program titled African
American Genealogy and the Pursuit of Family History
scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 25 in
the McMaster Center at Main Library, 325 Michigan St., in
downtown Toledo.
This course, organized by the Library’s Local History and
Genealogy Department, presents an introduction to the world
of family history research from an African American
researcher’s perspective. Join professional genealogist
Timothy Pinnick as he outlines beginning steps,
identifies important resources, and discusses research
methods and strategies. Registration is required to
attend this FREE and open to the public event – call
419.259.5233 to register!
Pinnick, also an independent scholar, lecturer, author and
entrepreneur, is known in genealogical circles for his vast
research. For example, for more than a decade he has
accumulated information on African-American coal miners with
an accompanying website:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~blackcoalminers
He has also expanded his research interests in other areas
of African-American history and genealogy covering roughly
the period from the Civil War to 1930. He teaches in the
African-American track at the Institute of Genealogy and
Historical Research. Pinnick has served on the boards of
both the Association of Professional Genealogists and
Federation of Genealogical Societies.
According to an article published on the History Detectives
page of PBS.org, do-it-yourself genealogical research has
become a popular hobby for millions of Americans. Some
historical factors can inhibit or aid your research, based
on events surrounding the lineage you are tracing.
The article states, “One potential obstacle to tracing
African-American lineage is slavery, an institution that
broke family bonds and made record keeping nearly
impossible. Because African-American slaves were considered
property, often a bill of sale - bearing just the age and
gender of the person sold - is the only record for an
individual living in a pre-Civil War slave-holding state.
The challenges of reaching back to the period before the
Civil War are great, but a host of tools are available if
you know where to look. One invaluable resource is The U.S.
National Archives. Documents created by federal agencies
after the Civil War provide a wealth of personal data about
the nearly four million African Americans freed by the
Emancipation Proclamation.
For example,
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
(or Freedmen's Bureau), established by Congress on March 3,
1865, has a wealth of searchable information. Established to
supervise relief and educational efforts for refugees and
freed slaves, the Freedmen's Bureau helped countless
African-Americans reunite with relatives at the end of the
Civil War. Though officially disbanded in 1872, the bureau
still maintains detailed records concerning African-American
military service, plantation conditions, migration, the
names of slave owners, and a host of family-related matters
such as birth, marriage and death certificates.
The most reliable records for the pre-Civil War era may be
oral histories. Genealogical histories were passed down
through stories told from one generation to the next. Since
this was often the only way to preserve one's lineage,
keeping the facts straight was of paramount importance.
In the 1930s the U.S. Library of Congress created Voices
from the Days of Slaver, an oral history project developed
to record and transcribe accounts by surviving witnesses of
the Civil War and slavery. With the development of audio
tape recordings, oral histories have become much easier to
collect and preserve, and it is now not uncommon to find
genealogical information through various individual
collectors.” |
