The items outlined below are posted to provide insight on how to find ancestors lost due to slavery.
Researching records that document slaves can be very challenging because
1. Some records are not available because they were burned etc.
2. Transcription issues when searching for researching that are made available online. (Volunteers/Researchers guess the text data incorrectly.)
3. Digitized records are misfiled within other records.
4. Records not available online so you have to go to the probate office.
5. Records are digitized but not indexed so you can't search them.
15. Ancestry and FamilySearch DO NOT have all of the probate records for EVERY COUNTY. Even if a county is listed, they may not have all of the documents available so unless you actually do your research in the County, your results are “limited”.
16. The records on Ancestry and even Family Search have been grossly mis- labeled or mis-filed. Names were misspelled, and even given the wrong name. For instance, if someone died in 1830 but had an open NOTE with someone else in 1818, on Family Search the date is labelled as 1818 but it was really 1818 (a few sources were mislabeled like like). These records and sources are a phenomenal and less expensive source for your research, but if you don’t look at EVERYTHING, you will miss a lot. That is why I did this project because you can be overwhelmed and confused if you don’t have all of the facts and information. Start there, but eventually we will all GO THERE!
When someone died and they had children, someone was appointed the guardian of the estate. Instead of the record being listed as that, you start looking at a record then you realize it is for a child and not the person who died. You have to still review those records, but you eventually have to know who the true person was that died so that you can combine this record with the true source.
If you've been able to research your family back to the 1870 Census, then you should surely feel blessed. Using the 1870 Census, you can begin the process of trying to find your ancestors who were related to your family members listed on the 1870 Census. By tracking the Free index of the census, you can begin to see a pattern of when and where the individuals were born. This will help you to develop a migration timeline for the family. For instance, Father born in NC, Mother born in SC, some of the children born in SC, then GA, then Alabama. This pattern will allude to the fact that
• the mother’s family migrated from SC to NC,
• then she met him and they got married in NC (most likely),
• then they moved to GA where some of the children were born,
• then eventually they migrated to Alabama where the remainder of the children were born.
• By tracking this information and comparing the slaves date of birth on the 1870 census, this can help you identify a link between the current slaveholder and the person you’re researching.
Slaves were property of their Slave holder so it is imperative to know their family as well as you know your own. In order to find your lost ancestors, you must search through the records for the slave holders with your last names and those in the area. If a woman was a widow, she was provided for when a slave owner died. The daughter-in laws were bequeathed slaves until she remarried. Then many times the slaves were either purchased by her or her husband, or were to be sold to a different family member. When a woman died and remarried, the slaves were most likely identified by her husband on the census so it is important to note who the women married and where she was living afterward. Sometimes the slave owner married a few times so be mindful of that and how the slaves were distributed from one marriage to the next. Many times women were bequeathed slaves from their fathers or families so the slaves could have came from the maternal line and not necessarily the paternal line. Sometimes the slaves were bequeathed to one family member and then ended up with another one after the sale. Review bill of sale and the transaction records in the court house. Don’t just rely on the information in the probate records. 14. Slaves were owned by Indians and Free African American’s as well!!
The 1860 and 1850 census is the only census in America were slaves were listed by race, and sex. Because no names were listed, it has made it a challenge to determine if your ancestors were in fact linked to the slaves of identified slave holders. Even with this fact, it's important to use the census to prove the slaves identified with the slave holders or slave managers based on their age. NOTE: Slave ages were most often guessed or exaggerated so it is within reason to use a slaves age who is within 3-5 years of the slave you are tracking.
It is important to know what the location of the area looked like at the time of your research. Boundary lines for the area changed dramatically from one year to within 5-10 years so many times even though your ancestor or the slave holder didn't move, the boundary lines changed and therefore the records may be recorded in a different location.
Once you've identified the slave holder by surname, and you've identified their family members, it's important to know when they died so that you can search probate records for all of them. You will find slaves many times were "gifted" to family members like children, grandchildren and even siblings and spouses so it's important to understand the relationship of the person who purchased or received the slave. Even though slaves became free because of Emancipation, many probate records still included the names of the slaves who were to be bequeathed but are now lost property for the estate so it’s still beneficial to look at the probate records for slave owners up until 1870.
The sale of property needed to be announced and recorded in the newspaper so searching the newspapers that were available at the time can be helpful. You can also find stories about slaves and incidences that caused deaths that may not be recorded in probate records.
And lastly, Deeds. The sale or gift of slaves from one person to the next was recorded in Notes and Deeds. These records identify the names and ages of slaves who were sold so once you have identified all of the information above, you will gain a better understanding of the sale and gifting of the slaves in these records. Many slave holders bequeathed their slaves to their family members and because many of them were children, they didn't want the slaves sold until the youngest child became of age (21) so the slaves were hired out to bring income for the estate. There are some families that had probate records open for more than 25 years. When this happened, the slaves were not to be sold until the youngest child came of age (or 21). In some cases, they even waited for a grandchild to come of age. There are some records that last for more than 25 years until Emancipation in 1865 so may have remained in the area or within the family. Notes: A promissory note is basically an IOU that contains the promise to repay the loan, as well as the terms for repayment. The note includes the:
• name(s) of the borrower
• property address
• interest rate (fixed or adjustable)
• late charge amount
• amount of the loan, and
• term (number of years).
Unlike a mortgage or deed of trust, the promissory note is not recorded in the county land records. The lender holds the promissory note while the loan is outstanding. When the loan is fully paid off, the note will be marked as paid in full and returned to the borrower. There were many NOTES recorded on probate records.
Many slaves were sold as families so that helps us track their relationships and if the weren’t sold to family members, then they were sold to neighbors so they remained in the area. Not EVERY slave holder recorded on the census actually owned the slaves. Many slave owners owned land in other counties and states. That’s why it’s helpful to know where their children were living or where they owned property. Some of the slave owners were just overseers or managers of the slaves, or some families hired slaves to work on their plantation. This would mean a “NOTE” was due to the slave owner. When you read the probate records, I do believe many of them had “notes” that were due because of the slaves being hired out. Of course the person could have owed them money, but if they owned slaves, then they most likely were hired out as well. Therefore, just because you see slaves on the census for the owners listed on the slave census, that doesn’t necessarily mean they actually “Owned them”.