For this week’s column, we decided to address an option for going forward when you have taken your family tree research efforts as far as you can take them on your own. How Do You Find a Professional Genealogist You Can Trust? Maybe you’ve hit a wall in tracing an elusive ancestor, or you’ve received…

In building my family tree, I have found a direct ancestor from Africa named Judah Reese. I would like to find out which plantation she was on. The 1880 census for Jefferson, Marengo County, Ala., says that she was born in Africa circa 1780 and lists her as living with her daughter (possibly she is…

This answer was provided in consultation with Meaghan E.H. Siekman, a researcher from the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Founded in 1845, NEHGS is the country’s leading nonprofit resource for family history research. Its website, AmericanAncestors.org, contains more than 300 million searchable records for research in New England, New York and beyond. With the leading experts…

I am an amateur genealogy enthusiast seeking help with my family tree research. How can I find records of slave trading in the U.S.? I know my grandparents on both sides of the family were born in Mississippi and Tennessee, but I’m pretty sure their parents didn’t arrive straight from Africa or the Caribbean to…

I am doing my husband’s genealogy. His grandmother was born Ethel (Etherea) Chantilla Pounder on March 23, 1898, in St. Philip Parish, Barbados, West Indies. Her father was Arthur Pounder and her mother was Avis Jordan. How can I find records on Arthur and Avis? —Patricia L. Blackwell There are plenty of resources available to you!…

My sister and I were “brown babies,” which is what children born to African-American soldiers and German women during and after World War II were called. However, I was adopted as an infant and raised by African-American parents. I was raised as Renate D. Loveless (my maiden name). I have located my African-American roots and…

My great-grandfather married my great-grandmother under the name “Roy Parker” and also served in World War I under that name. However, when he died, his brother Robert Hagen notified the coroner that “Roy Parker” was actually “Henry Hagen.” Roy Parker/Henry Hagen died in Missouri in 1935. How do I find out who he was, where…

I have hit a wall while researching my paternal grandfather’s parents. My great-grandparents Joseph and Queen Wiggins were from Milledgeville, Ga., in Baldwin County. They are mentioned in the [Daughters of the American Revolution] chronicles of Anna Maria Green Cook, titled History of Baldwin County, Georgia [pdf]. My great-grandparents were listed under “Faithful Negroes” in…

We have traced our roots back to our great-great-great-great-grandfather Lar Henry Green (aka Henry G). According to family legend, he was a slave in France or Portugal, and when he arrived in the U.S., he married a 15-year-old Ethiopian girl. Lar Henry was born in July 1831 and died March 31, 1905, in Ladonia, Texas.…

My ancestors Lewis Pratt (born circa 1870) and his father, John Pratt (born circa 1840), lived in Prattville in Alabama, according to family research that I have done. My research also reveals (from Ancestry.com and a letter written by Lewis Pratt’s granddaughter) that John Pratt was born in North Carolina and moved his family to…