Thank you!

You're welcome! I'm glad you found it helpful.

We appreciate your kind words!

Sorry, but are you actually saying this to descendants of enslaved people who have traced their enslaved ancestry back multiple generations? Asking to see what kind of personal or educational context that informed your comment.

Hi! Great question. There were many non-removal Natives, especially in the southeast who survived mostly by assimilation. Some more so than others. The largest example of non-removal Natives is what is now known as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. There are also instances of Natives creating communities with free people of color such as the Dimery Settlment in Horry County South Carolina, or with runaway enslaved people such as in Dismal Swamp, Virginia. There's a wonderful book on the subject called Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas by Jeffrey Olster. I hope this helps! Jennifer @ IAAM.

Glad to hear that!

We 100% agree. The research journey shouldn't be about the pursuit of finding a famous ancestor. Ancestors who simply got out of bed every day to provide for their family, facing every kind of adversity imaginable, was an achievement worthy of respect.

Thank you!

I have. "Slaves in the Family" provided some information about a client's ancestor who was enslaved by one of Mr. Ball's ancestors. - Brian

Hi Mary, MAAGI is the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute. You can learn more about this organization by visiting www.maagiinstitute.org/

We also have a webinar about MAAGI which you can watch via kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYq1gpZ3fdmZhsk

That's a great suggestion, thank you. We will do our best to either host a webinar about these resources or write blog posts about how to get the best results out of them.

Hello. CFH webinars are streamed live every 3rd Saturday of the month at 1pm EST. Black History Month is different. CFH hosts webinars every Saturday during Black History Month. You can see future webinars, and register to attend, by visiting iaamuseum.org/events. Webinars are also streamed live in the CFH Conference Room at the IAAM. You can ask questions which are then shared with the panelists. Whether you watch online or at the Museum, we have you covered!

@@iaamuseum thanks ❤️🚨‼️✅

Colleton moved its records to Columbia, SC in 1865 to keep them safe. Unfortunately, the records ended up being burned. This link published articles about how to research burned counties www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Colleton_County,_South_Carolina_Genealogy We hope this helps.

We have an additional suggestion to the one given above. If you are researching an enslaving family who held enslaved people, try researching court records in the surrounding counties, including Charleston County. Look for lawsuits involving an enslaver's heirs or for partition deeds in these surrounding counties. Search in the county that an heir lived. It is not unusual to find copies of an enslaver's will, estate inventory, and slave lists in these court records. Colleton District was a large district. Knowing where an enslaving family lived within the district will also help. They may have lived closer to a county court house in a neighboring county (Charleston, Dorchester, Hampton, Bamberg, etc.) and filed their legal papers in that neighboring county's courthouse.

It depends on the county. Which county are specifically referring to with your research?

Just in case you haven't...have you researched neighboring Arkansas County in Arkansas? It may have some of the slavery-related records you seek. Its courthouse may have been closer to where an enslaving family lived than a courthouse built in Deshaa or Chicot County. There is also the Arkansas-Missouri slave case records, 1849-1859 (digitalheritage.arkansas.gov/finding-aids/4/) Court cases may also prove fruitful. It wasn't uncommon for slaveholding family members to take their family to court over inheriting enslaved people. These lawsuits will oftentimes have a formal estate inventory listing - or at least names and groupings of enslaved people that the heirs were fighting over. WPA Slave Narratives can also be useful. Here's a link to 6 WPA Slave Narratives from Chicot County, Arkansas: lakeport.astate.edu/2016/02/16/wpa-slave-narratives-for-chicot-county/ We're also seeing a few local history books on books.google.com and archive.org/ that name enslaved people in Chicot, Desha, and Arkansas Counties. Arkansas and Missouri Union Army muster rolls 1863-1864 may help - as well as researching service cards and pension applications for men who served in the US Colored Troops (USCT). The Freedmen's Bureau Records Archive (available on FamilySearch.org) is an invaluable resource. Lastly, tax records. These records may not name the enslaved - but will provide details about how many people were enslaved.

@@iaamuseum thank you for commenting! I have done many of the things you’ve listed…freedmen’s bureau in Napoleon and Vicksburg and even Little Rock! Looked in Arkansas county to no avail. After an exhaustive search on Fold3, no military presence seen. Combed through court records but not one thing was there. Southeast Arkansas has shown itself to be a county that rarely documented slaves as property. I’ve poured over the probate records so much it’s ridiculous that there are virtually no inventory records prior to 1880’s. Closely examined all available tax records fir four of the family members of the enslaver. I re-checked the WPA recordings but no connections there. I’ll check the slave case records you mentioned. Greatly appreciate your post.