PROVO, Utah, Feb. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of Black
History Month, Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family
history resource, today launched more than 250,000 new historical
records documenting early African American family history. The five
new collections span more than a century and contain important
details about the lives of African Americans who bravely fought in
the U.S. Civil War, document the transportation of slaves to and
from the prominent slave ports of New
Orleans and Savannah, GA,
and include poignant first-person accounts from former slaves.
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110201/LA39907)
Ancestry.com's historical record collection now contains more
than 3.2 million African American slave records. As 88 percent of
the United States' black
population in 1850 was comprised of slaves, when extrapolated to
its current population, nearly 35 million Americans may find a
slave ancestor in Ancestry.com's African American collections.
The Ancestry.com African American Historical Record Collection
includes thousands of poignant stories that bring this part of
American history to life. One story outlines how Solomon Northup was lured from New York to Washington, D.C with the promise of a job in a
circus. Instead he was kidnapped, put on a boat to New Orleans and sold into slavery. His
liberation in 1853 prompted him to write "Twelve Years a Slave,
1841-1853," which became both a popular seller at the time and
an important historical document. The ship record of his transfer
to New Orleans, which also lists
most of the cast of characters from his book, can be found in
Ancestry.com's Slave Ship Manifests from New Orleans, 1807-1860.(original record
images available)
The five new collections form part of the 60 million records
already included in Ancestry.com's African American Historical
Record collection—the largest online collection of African American
family history records available. These new collections are:
- US Colored Troops Service Records, 1861-1867:
Approximately 178,000 African American troops served the Union in
the final two years of the US Civil War. Their compiled service
records include enlistment papers, casualty sheets, death reports
and correspondence.
- Slave Ship Manifests from Savannah, 1789-1859: Although the
transatlantic slave trade was banned in 1807, the internal
transportation of slaves remained, especially as the tobacco
industry diminished in the North while the cotton industry boomed
in the South. These port records document the arrival and departure
of more than 10,000 slaves through the port of Savannah, GA.
- Slave Ship Manifests from New
Orleans, 1807-1860: Another important Southern port,
this collection includes records for more than 100,000 slaves who
arrived or departed through the port of New Orleans.
- Freedmen's Bureau Records, 1865-1878: The Freedmen's
Bureau was formed after the Civil War to aid in Reconstruction
efforts. This collection contains hundreds of thousands of records
relating to former slaves the Bureau helped find work, to establish
schools, negotiate contracts, seek medical care, legalize marriages
and more.
- Slave Narratives, 1936-1938 (updated): In the early
1930s, an effort began to document the life stories of 3,500 former
slaves. The result is a series of moving, individual accounts of
their lives, as told in their own words.
With collections such as these now online and searchable for the
first time, exploring African American roots is becoming
increasingly accessible and popular. For example, leading African
American actress and singer Vanessa Williams' own family journey
will be showcased during the second-season premiere of the hit NBC
series "Who Do You Think You Are?" on Friday, February 4. Ancestry.com is the
official sponsor for the NBC series and worked closely with the
producers to provide the family history research for those
celebrities featured. Lionel
Richie's family history will also be showcased this season,
building on the compelling African American stories of Spike Lee and Emmitt
Smith, who were featured last season.
"As we continue to expand our collection of African American
family history records, more Americans than ever can make exciting
breakthroughs when researching their early heritage," said
Josh Hanna, Head of Global Marketing
at Ancestry.com. "According to independent statistical analysis,
one in nine Americans has early African roots and so may have
ancestors just waiting to be discovered in our collections."
These inspiring collections can help millions of African
Americans uncover their own family stories. To search the
African American Historical Record Collection, visit
www.ancestry.com/aahistory. For further stories and updates related
to African American family history research, you can also follow
Ancestry.com on Facebook and Twitter.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online
family history resource, with nearly 1.4 million paying
subscribers. More than 6 billion records have been added to the
site in the past 14 years. Ancestry users have created more than 20
million family trees containing over 2 billion profiles.
Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries that
help people discover, preserve and share their family history,
including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.
SOURCE Ancestry.com