Best Internet Resources for African American Genealogy

Internet sites are often sought when beginners start exploring family history. The challenge is where to turn to when researching African American ancestry. This webinar examines resources that provide guidance for the unique problems facing descendants of slaves. The webinar begins with a full introduction to Afrigeneas, the oldest continually operating African American genealogy website. From daily online chats and over 20 message boards, the visitor to this site finds a community of volunteers to provide assistance with their beginning research problems. Afrigeneas provides unique resources such as the slave database and a searchable archived message database that retrieves African American genealogical queries back to 1997. Popular subscription sites like Ancestry and Footnote are among useful sources for primary source documents such as emancipation records, service records of US Colored Troops and more. But free sites provide good resources like Cyndi's List and USGenweb which provide sound links to other African American sites and one extremely useful resource is found on the ever popular FamilySearch. AfriGeneas has also joined the genealogy blogging community. Blogs are continually surfacing reflecting personal research journeys, while weekly columns and podcasts provide advice for research challenges. In addition one can also find basic instructional videos for African American research as well. There are many options to be found online, and the African Ancestored researcher will have an abundance of resources to offer a hand in providing tips, suggestions, and instruction.