The Slave Name Roll Project

THE SLAVE NAME ROLL PROJECT

About the project - from their website:

During Black History Month in 2015 a Facebook group of Genealogy Bloggers began the Slave Name Roll Project with five contributions. The project objective is to record information about named slaves whenever and where ever they may be found so that African-American genealogists and family historians may break through the wall that is the 1870 census. Documents such as wills and other probate records, bills of sale, court cases and newspaper advertisements for run away slaves are often rich sources of information.

They ask when submitting a contribution you follow these guidelines:

Please include the following information:

1. Name of the enslaved (usually only a given name)
2. Name of the slave owner
3. Source of the information (will, estate inventory, court case, deed, etc.)
4. Date and location of the source information

Currently, they have over 500 submissions from 25 states including Washington, DC and from four countries:  Bahama Islands, Great Britain, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

I came across a probate record from Shelby County, Tennessee that named 47 slaves.  Not only did it name them, it also gave their ages and grouped them as families in the probate inventory.  I sent it to their website and hopefully it will be published soon.

I also have created a new page here on my site that is full of links to research your African American family history.  All of the links will take you to records or educate you on how to find the records.

Look for the tab at the top of this page "African American Research."

Have a great weekend!