African American Resources for Louisiana
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Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Online Resources
- 3 Research Strategy
- 4 History
- 5 Resources
- 5.1 Biographies
- 5.2 Cemeteries
- 5.3 Census Records
- 5.4 Church Records
- 5.5 Emancipation Records
- 5.6 Funeral Homes
- 5.7 Genealogies
- 5.8 Land and Property
- 5.9 Oral Histories
- 5.10 Other Records
- 5.11 Military Records
- 5.12 Newspapers
- 5.13 Probate Records
- 5.14 Reconstruction Records
- 5.15 School Records
- 5.16 Slavery Records
- 5.17 Vital Records
- 5.18 Voting Registers
- 6 Archives and Libraries
- 7 Societies
- 8 References
Introduction[edit | edit source]
A list of resources for researching African American ancestors who lived in Louisiana.
Online Resources[edit | edit source]
- USGenWeb Project: African American Archives - links to transcriptions and indexes of various African American records in Louisiana
- Louisiana, Freed Slave Records, 1719-1820
- Louisiana, Slave Records, 1719-1820
- Louisiana, New Orleans, Slave Manifests of Coastwise Vessels, 1807-1860 — index and images
- New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860 Index and images ($)
- Louisiana, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 Images Only.
- Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1719-1830 - This website provides a searchable database for African-Americans from the Louisiana area.
- Discover Freedmen - this site searches all of the Freedmen's Bureau record collections on FamilySearch altogether (and redirects there)
- Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
- U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867 ($)
- U.S., Freedmen's Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1863-1878 ($) index and images
- Slave and Free People of Color Baptismal Records (Archdiocese of New Orleans Office of Archives)
- Louisiana. Parish Court (Orleans Parish), Index to Slave Emancipation Petitions, 1814-1843
- A Partial Transcription of Inward Slave Manifests, Port of New Orleans (1818 to 1860), index
- Louisiana Death Records 1911-1956
- Louisiana African American Griot
Research Strategy[edit | edit source]
History[edit | edit source]
See these websites to learn more about African Americans in Louisiana history:
- Historic Pathways. Elizabeth Shown Mills. (An online archives of many peer-reviewed articles and papers relating to Louisiana's Creole history, particular Cane River and the Red River Valley.)
- Louisiana National Register of Historic Places (Excellent resource with photos and history)
- USGenWeb Project: History
- Louisiana Slavery: An Introduction
See these books and articles to learn more about African Americans in Louisiana history:
- Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. "People of Color in Louisiana: Part I". The Journal of Negro History vol. 1, no. 4 (October 1916): 361-376.
- Perkins, A. E., ed. Who's Who in Colored Louisiana, 1930. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Douglas Loan CO., 1930].
- The Large Slaveholder of Louisiana 1860. Joseph Karl Menn. New Orleans: Pelican Publishing Co., 1964. FHL Collection
- Bonham, Milledge L. Jr. "Reconstruction in Louisiana after 1868". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review Vol. 5, No. 3 (December 1918): 366-368.
- Ann Patton Malone. Sweet chariot : slave family and household structure in nineteenth-century Louisiana.Chapel Hill, North Carolina : University of North Carolina Press, 1992. FHL 976.3 H6p
Resources[edit | edit source]
Biographies[edit | edit source]
- USGenWeb Project: Biography Records
- Perkins, A.E.Who's Who in Colored Louisiana. Baton Rouge, La.: Douglas Loan Co., 1930. FHL film 1303161, item 6
- Burkett, Randall K., Nancy Hall, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. eds. Black Biographical Dictionaries. Alexandria, Virginia: Chadwyck-Healy, Inc., 198-. FHL fiche 6049870, first of 349 fiche; book 973 F23bbd
Cemeteries[edit | edit source]
Census Records[edit | edit source]
Church Records[edit | edit source]
- USGenWeb Project: Church Records
- Slave and Free People of Color Baptismal Records (Archdiocese of New Orleans Office of Archives)
Emancipation Records[edit | edit source]
Funeral Homes[edit | edit source]
Genealogies[edit | edit source]
GU272 Memory Project Genealogy and history of descendants of the 272 enslaved people sold by Georgetown University in 1838.
Land and Property[edit | edit source]
Plantation[edit | edit source]
- Plantation Records (Caddo and Bossier Parishes)
- Sankofagen - Louisiana plantations and slave labor sites
Oral Histories[edit | edit source]
Other Records[edit | edit source]
Military Records[edit | edit source]
- James G. Hollandsworth, Jr. The Louisiana Native Guards : the black military experience during the Civil War.Baton Rouge, Louisiana : Louisiana State University Press, c1995. FHL 976.3 M2hj
- USGenWeb Project: Military Records
Newspapers[edit | edit source]
- USGenWeb Project: News Records
- Newspaper Webindex:The Louisiana Newspaper Project
Probate Records[edit | edit source]
Reconstruction Records[edit | edit source]
Freedman’s Bank[edit | edit source]
An excellent source is the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (visit the African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records page to learn more). This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and freed slaves. Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers from 3 March 1865 to 25 July 1874 may list the name of the depositor, date of entry, age, birthplace, residence, complexion, name of employer or occupation, wife or husband’s name, death information, children’s names, name of father and mother, brothers’ and sisters’ names, remarks, and signature. Early books sometimes contained the name of the former master or mistress and the name of the plantation. Copies of death certificates were sometimes attached to the entries. The collection is organized alphabetically by state, then city where the bank was located, then date the account was established, then account number.
Online collections of Freedman's Bank records:
Freedmen's Bureau[edit | edit source]
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist former slaves in the southern United States. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists. Such documents include censuses, marriage records, and medical records. These records often include full names, former masters and plantations, and current residences.[1] For 1865 and 1866, the section on abandoned and confiscated lands includes the names of the owners of the plantations or homes that were abandoned, confiscated, or leased. It gives the county and location, a description of the house, the number of acres owned, and the number of cabins of former slaves. These films do not appear to contain the names of former slaves.
To find Freedmen's Bureau records:
- DiscoverFreedmen - the search on this site will utilize all of the Freedmen's Bureau records on FamilySearch, including:
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Claim Records,1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Hospital and Medical Records, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Labor Contracts, Indenture and Apprenticeship Records, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Ration Records,1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Records of Persons and Articles Hired, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Freedmen's Court Records, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Land and Property Records, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen's Complaints, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Superintendent of Education and of the Division of Education, 1865-1872
Other FamilySearch collections not included:
- Louisiana, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 Images Only.
- United States Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records,1865-1872
- United States Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen, 1865-1872
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Assistant Commissioner, 1865-1872 Images only. These reports primarily contain statistical and historical information.
- More collections are available in the FamilySearch Catalog. Search for "FREEDMEN - INDIANA" in the Subjects search bar to find.
Visit the African American Freedmen's Bureau Records page to learn more about utilizing these records.
School Records[edit | edit source]
Slavery Records[edit | edit source]
- USGenWeb Project: Slavery Records
- Records Relating to Slavery, Free People of Color, and Freedmen
- Index to Slave Emancipation Petitions, 1814-1843 (Orleans Parish Court)
- Bossier Parish, Louisiana 1860 Slaveholder and 1870 African-Americans
- A Partial Transcription of Inward Slave Manifests
- Louisiana, Freed Slave Records, 1719-1820
- Louisiana, Slave Records, 1719-1820
- New Orleans, Louisiana, Slave Manifests, 1807-1860 Index and images ($)
- Claire Prechtel-Kluskens. New Orleans Slave Manifests, 1807-60 NGS Magazine 34 #4 (October-December 2008): 41-45.
- Slave and Free People of Color Baptismal Records (Archdiocese of New Orleans Office of Archives)
- The Georgetown Memory Project
- GU272 Memory Project
Vital Records[edit | edit source]
- Alphabetical Birth Indexes for Orleans Parish 1796-1900 by USGenWeb
Birth[edit | edit source]
Marriage[edit | edit source]
The Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872) was created by the US government to assist former slaves in the southern United States. One of their responsibilities was to record the marriages (past and present) of the former slaves. These records can be found in the collections below and include the lists of marriages that occurred previously, marriage certificates, and marriage licenses. The information contained on the records may include the name of the husband and wife/groom and bride, age, occupation, residence, year or date of marriage, by whom, number of children, and remarks.
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
- U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867
Death[edit | edit source]
- Louisiana Deaths, 1850-1875, 1894-1960 - information may include name, death date and place, gender, age, race, birthplace, parents and their birthplaces, cause of death, and burial date and place
- USGenWeb Project: Obituaries
- Louisiana Death Records 1911-1956
Divorce[edit | edit source]
Voting Registers[edit | edit source]
Archives and Libraries[edit | edit source]
The Amistad Research Center
Tulane University
Tilton Hall
6823 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70118
Phone: (504) 862-3222
The Amistad Research Center is the nation's oldest, largest and most comprehensive independent archive specializing in the history of African Americans and other ethnic groups.
New Orleans Public Library
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112
Phone: (504) 596-2560
The New Orleans Public Library has a large African American collection. See African-American Genealogy Sources for more information.
River Road African American Museum
406 Charles Street
Donaldsonville, LA 70346
Phone: (225) 474-5553
Email: kathe@aamuseum.org
Tangipahoa African American Heritage Museum & Veterans Archives
1600 Phoenix Square
Hammond, LA 70403
Phone: 985-542-4259
Societies[edit | edit source]
- Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color - a Facebook page providing resources about a community in Natchitoches (northwestern Louisiana) founded during colonial days by a Creole family.
- Louisiana Lineage Legacies - a blog dedicated to sharing and exchanging genealogical information concerning Louisiana research
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau," "African American Heritage," National Archives, accessed 11 May 2018.
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