African Americans in Delaware, 1890

A new database has been added to Ancestry Library Edition:  African Americans in Delaware, 1890, U.S. Census.

This is a very small file. It consists of 29 handwritten pages with names, the enumeration district number, the county and hundred where the person lived, and their occupation.  Since this is an agriculture list, the occupations are mainly farmer or farm laborer. Some females are listed.  About 600 names (some were duplicates, so it is hard to get an accurate count).

The easiest way to find this database is to Select “Search” on the Ancestry Library Edition home, then select Delaware from the list, select “view all 22 Delaware Census & Voter Lists” then the database.  The database can be searched can be browsed. For the browse option, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Remember that databases containing images can best be viewed using Internet Explorer.

This file is significant because no personal information exists for Delaware from the 1890 census (the population schedules). This list is an extract from National Archives microfilm M1919.

The 1890 list is included in: List of selected African Americans from the 1890 and 1900 federal population censuses of Delaware and related census publications: “Agriculture in the state of Delaware” (1901) and “Negroes in the United States” (1904) / compiled by Claire Prechtel-Kluskens.  Morris Library | Microforms-Microfilm no. 6615.  (National Archives microfilm publications. M1919)

Why Genealogy?

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage — to know who we are and where we have come from.

Alex Haley

… My feelings are in each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before…

…We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to “Tell our story”. So, we do.

Unknown Author  (see more: Genealogy and Why We Do It)

…Young people do not feel much interest in family history, and I know old people do not often take the trouble to write down what they know. Consequently, so much is lost to me that I now long to know. While my grandparents were living here in this old home, I could have learned so much, but with the usual thoughtlessness of youth, I didn’t know what I was losing.

From the Diary of Mrs. Jennie I. Coleman (Dec. 3d, 1905). As printed in The Robert Coleman Family From Virginia to Texas, 1652 – 1965. By J. P. Coleman. p. 34.

Guides to African American Newspapers

“No single publication, website, or other entity will be able to provide the location for ALL of the newspapers that are out there.” from Pinick, Timothy N.  Finding and Using African American Newspapers, p. 21f

African American Newspapers

African American Newspapers: The 19th Century. Accessible Archives. Location: Library Databases

Access available to those who are affiliated with the University of Delaware or who are in the library.

Full text searchable database of selected issues of important African American newspapers. Provides digital images of the pages.

Included: The Christian Recorder, The Colored American (Weekly Advocate), Douglass Monthly, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Freedom’s Journal,  Liberator, The National Era, The North Star, Provincial Freeman (Ontario)

Afro-American (Baltimore). Location: Morris Library Microfilm  S 151 (Lib. has: 1893-1968)

Article about the Afro-American (PBS).

The Chicago Defender. Location: Library Databases (In: Black Studies Center) Full text 1910 to 1975.

Access available to those who are affiliated with the University of Delaware or who are in the library.

Includes social columns from a large number of small communities, both in Illinois and in other states.  Included were some communities as far away as Connecticut and California. For a partial listing of places, see Pinick, Timothy N.  Finding and Using African American Newspapers.

Article about the Chicago Defender (PBS).

The Colored American (Washington, D.C.). Location: Internet in: Chronicling America project

Freeman (Indianapolis, Indiana). Location: Morris Library Microfilm S 2239 (Lib. has:1888-1916)

Published 1884-1927.

Norfolk Journal and Guide. Location: Morris Library Microfilm S 154 (Lib. has: 1916-1917,1921-1966)

Article about the Journal and Guide (PBS).

Pittsburgh Courier. Location: Morris Library Microfilm S 182 (Lib. has: 1911-1912,1923-1950)

Article about the Pittsburgh Courier (PBS).

Richmond Planet.  (Richmond, Va) 1883-1938. See description in Chronicling America project

The Washington Bee (Washington, D.C.). Location: Internet in: Chronicling America project

More Information

ProQuest Historical Newspapers—Black Newspapers collection.

Not available at the UD Library.

Provides full text of: Atlanta Daily World (1931–2003); The Baltimore Afro-American (1893–1988); Chicago Defender (1910–1975); Cleveland Call & Post (1934–1991); Los Angeles Sentinel (1934–2005); New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993); The Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921–2003); The Philadelphia Tribune (1912–2001); Pittsburgh Courier (1911–2002)

The Black Press Held By The Library Of Congress.

Caution: created in 1991, so the holdings information is not current. Still useful for titles.

Slave Descendants & Records

Slave Descendants Face Struggles

Article appearing on Tampa Bay Online

Article discusses lack of marriage records. Talks about using court records.

Hint for searching: if your ancestors were slaves, if you know the name of the “owner”, you can search land records, wills, deeds, and other resources.

African American Genealogy Success Story

Slave Girl’s Story Revealed Through Rare Records

Article appearing in National Geographic News (June 8, 2005).

“Nearly 250 years ago a 10-year-old African girl was kidnapped and transported to South Carolina, where she was renamed Priscilla and sold into slavery.

Unlike the ancestors of many African Americans who were brought to North America as slaves, Priscilla left a paper trail that tells her story and connects her to her living descendants.”

Databases Specifically for African Americans in Ancestry Library Edition

African American Photo Collection, 1850-2000

The African in Canada: The Maroons of Jamaica and Nova Scotia

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820 (Slave) (Also called Louisiana Slave Records)

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1719-1820 (Free)

Census “Slave Schedules” 1850 and 1860

Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina Black Deaths 1871-89

Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874

Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records

Illinois Servitude and Emancipation Records, 1720-1865

Louis Hughes, Thirty Years a Slave, 1832-62

Louisiana Slave Records (Also called Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820)

New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860 (World Archives Project)

Slave Narratives

U.S. Colored Troops Military Service Records, 1861-1865.
Records of the more than 178,000 men who served in the U.S. Colored Troops regiments during the Civil War

U.S. Freedmen Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1865-1872

Note: there are many more databases available in Ancestry.com (personal subscription) than in Ancestry Library Edition.  Ancestry.com has a Special Collection titled African American Collections.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

African Names Database -  a compilation of lists of Africans liberated from slave vessels captured by British cruisers between 1819 and 1845, and taken for adjudication in the courts established in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and in Havana, Cuba.

Original source: documents of the British Foreign Office held by the British National Archives.

Available online through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database at Emory University. The database provides other information such as a history of the slave trade, vessels captured, photographs of ships and persons, and lesson plans.

African American Genealogy Guides

In the Library

African American lives [videorecording] / a film by Kunhardt Productions. Originally broadcast as a four-part television series in 2006. Written by Henry Louis Gates. Jr. ; a production of Kunhardt Productions, Inc. and Thirteen/ WNET New York.
Location: Morris Library – Media | DVD-Limited Circulation DVD 2472
Location: Internet (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/2006/index.html)

Black Family Research: Records Of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives. Compiled by Reginald Washington. Series (Reference information paper; 108)  Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2006.
Location: Morris Library | U.S. Documents-Lower Level AE 1.124:108/2006

Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy. By James M. Rose & Alice Eichholz. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2003.
Location:  Morris Library | Reference CS21 .R57 2003

Ethnic Genealogy: A Research Guide. Edited by Jessie Carney Smith ; foreword by Alex Haley.
Location: Morris Library | CS49 .E83 1983

A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors: How to Find and Record Your Unique Heritage. By Franklin Carter Smith, Emily Anne Croom. Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway Books, 2003.
Location: Morris Library | Reference E185.96 .S6514 2003

Slave Genealogy: A Research Guide With Case Studies. By David H. Streets. Bowie, MD : Heritage Books, 1986.
Location: Morris Library | E185.96 .S817 1986

Subject phrases to browse/search in DELCAT/WorldCatLocal:

Freedmen — United States — History
African American families — History
African Americans — Genealogy

Key phrases:

black indians

On the Internet

African American Research (National Archives)

African-American (Cyndi’s List)

See especially, the How To section.

Freedmen’s Bureau, 1865-1872 (National Archives)

Researching Slavery and Freedom (Philadelphia Regional National Archives)

The Six Phases of African American Genealogy (Ancestry.com Learning Center)

African American Genealogy

The Black loyalist directory: African Americans in exile after the American Revolution. Edited with an introduction by Graham Russell Hodges ; transcript and index, Susan Hawkes Cook ; layout and production, Alan Edward Brown. New York : Garland Pub. in association with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996.
Location : Morris Library | E277 .B57 1996

Freedman’s Bank records. (Family history resource file) Salt Lake City, UT: Intellectual Reserve, Inc. : Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, c2000.
Location: Morris Library | Microforms CD-ROM 1237

List of free Black heads of families in the first census of the United States, 1790. (Special list / National Archives and Records Service; no. 34) Compiled by Debra L. Newman.Washington: National Archives and Records Service, 1973.
Location: Morris Library | U.S. Documents-Lower Level GS 4.7:34