black genealogy advice

Repeating patterns in Reconstruction-era census records point to possible connections during slavery.

Finding out how a great-grandfather came to own 300 acres of land in post-Civil War South Carolina.

Post-Civil War records point to a common fate for many African Americans after emancipation.

She found a photo of her great-grandmother in the records of a historic plantation house in Georgia, but little…

A reader encounters the proverbial brick wall that African Americans encounter in antebellum genealogy research.

A family legend points to a turn-of-the-20th-century transracial adoption. Could that have actually happened?

A series of run-ins with law enforcement in the United Kingdom splits a family apart. Now the family is seeking…

In revisiting the story of black refugees to Trinidad, we came across the tale of a foiled slave rebellion in…

A reader wonders if she could be related to Andrew Jackson through one of his slaves.

We made a surprising discovery while addressing a question about how slaves got their last names.

Research reveals a Black Seminole family’s continent-crossing migration in search of freedom and battlefield glory.

Dear Professor Gates:

I am seeking help to learn more about my third great-grandmother Elizabeth Bettie Lane Dickey. She was raised on…

I have a lot of questions regarding my family's history. With my grandfather's recent passing, I was compelled to…

Many years ago, I located my maternal great-great-grandparents, Lucy Hoffman and Ben Hoffman, in census records for…

I've been trying to help my dad, Samuel D. Jones, locate his father. His mother, Amolene Hughes Jackson, passed in…

I am trying to trace the roots of my paternal great-great-grandfather, Lucien Joshua. He relayed to the census taker…

I’ve managed to trace my family ancestry back to an Adalin and Alex Vinson. The records I have state that Adalin…

How do I go about finding the parents of my maternal second great-grandfather Spencer Mott, born about 1820 in…

I visited Charleston, S.C., last week and walked past a statue of Wade Hampton III and stopped dead in my tracks.…