Kentucky African American Genealogy

African American genealogical research often presents additional difficulties because record keeping for Black individuals was limited before the Civil War. For this reason, a separate section devoted to African American resources is appropriate, similar to the approach taken for Native American research, which faces comparable challenges. The resources linked from this page provide the principal sources currently available for researching Black genealogy in Kentucky.

Although progress has been made in recent years, African American genealogy still requires careful, methodical work. New publications, bibliographies, and guides issued by genealogical societies and interest groups have improved access to relevant information, but the first step remains the same: organizing personal materials and applying standard research practices.

Researching African American families involves two broad periods, divided by the Civil War. Methods used for tracing enslaved individuals differ significantly from those used for white families or free African Americans before emancipation. After the war, African Americans appear in most of the same record types as white families, and research techniques largely converge.

• National Archives
  • United State National Archives
    • Digital Classroom
    • Genealogy Research at the National Archives
• ArchivesKentucky African American Griots
• Societies
  • Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society
• Biography
  • Mary Britton
  • Ora Framer Porter Nurse
  • Hosted at Allen County African American Griots
    • Mary T. Benedict
    • Alfred Landers
    • Mrs. Alvertie Landers
    • Mr. E. G. Landers
    • Misses Ella and Priscilla Rogers
    • Phillip Shipley Jr.
• Kentucky African American Cemeteries
  • Access Genealogy’s Cemetery Records
    The most complete coverage of Cemetery records available on the web.  They are broken down by county.  We do know know if there are African Americans in these cemeteries, so you should browse them for ancestors also.
• Kentucky African American Census Records
  • Hosted at Ancestry.com
    • 1870 US Fed Census $$
  • Access Genealogy’s Census Records
    Providing the most complete coverage of census records available on the web. We’ve broken the list down by county, and take a careful look at the index page where we explain which records are missing from the census data and may never be recovered.
• Church Records
  • Hosted at Ancestry.com
    • The First African Baptist Church of North America $$
  • Greenville Baptist Church
• Court Records
  • Hosted at Ancestry.com
    • Slavery petitions and papers $$
  • Hosted at Allen County African American Griots
    • Allen Co., KY Deed Book Abstracts
    • Slave Births 1852-1861
    • Slave Deaths 1852 – 1861
• History
  • Ancestry.com Slave Narratives  $$
    Perhaps no other resource approaches the range of human experience found in Ancestry.com’s Slave Narratives. This collection of interviews stands in contrast to other slave narratives that appear in most literature anthologies which were written by the rare few who, against staggering odds, had become literate. This database provides a more poignant picture of what it was to live as a slave in the American South. Taken from The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, this collection is the most complete available picture of the African-American slavery experience. There is simply no other historical document quite like it. The collection contains over 20,000 pages of type-scripted interviews with more than 3,500 former slaves collected over a ten year period. (Requires Ancestry.com Membership) Get 14 Days Free Access!!!
  • Kentucky Slave Narratives
  • Hosted at Ancestry.com
    • Freedman’s Bank Records, 1865-1874 $$
• Military Records
  • Military Records (hosted at AccessGenealogy)
    • World War I Records
    • Hosted at Ancestry.com
      • WWI Draft Registration Cards $$
    • World War II Records
      • Kentucky World War II Army – Air Corps Casualty List
      • Kentucky World War II Navy – Marines Casualty List
  • Hosted at Ancestry.com
    • Civil War Service Records $$
  • African-American Civil War Soldiers & Sailors
  • African American Union Sailors from Kentucky
• Surnames
  • African-American Surnames Database
• Vital Records
  • Kentucky Vital Records

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