Did you know that there’s a whole collection of virtual events offered by Ancestry that can help you learn how to research your African American ancestors? These webinars, hosted by Senior Story Producer Nicka Sewell-Smith, offer tips and context to guide your research efforts and help you interpret your findings.

Whether you’re hearing about these virtual events for the first time or you could use a refresher on one or more of the topics, you can watch these videos whenever it’s convenient for you. Each webinar includes so much detail that watching them a second time can be very useful—you might catch something you missed the first time.

The practices related to enslavement in the United States—viewing people as property and not documenting them with rich details, for example—make finding pre-Civil War records of enslaved Black ancestors especially difficult. Nicka shares her expertise on how to look for clues that might reveal insights into your family history

Getting Started with your Family History Research

These three webinars highlight the challenges and rewards that can come from tracing back your African American history. If you’re new to genealogy, these videos are a great place to start. You can learn the process for laying down the foundation of your family’s story through records like the 1870-1950 U.S. censuses, for example.

Webinar: Beginning African American Research
Webinar: Researching the Enslaved
Webinar: Finding Your Juneteenth Ancestors

Diving Deeper into Specific Resources and Records

Once you’ve traced your family back through post-Civil War census records, you can begin to explore other record collections that may uncover information about their lives before the Civil War. Research on African American family history can be complicated, but with Nicka’s guidance, you can learn how to tackle different types of records.

In the two-part series on the Newspaper.com Articles of Enslavement collection, Nicka takes a close look at the kinds of historical newspaper ads that may help your research and the detailed information these ads can contain. She also provides tips about which search keywords can help you narrow the focus when you’re doing newspaper research. You can access the “Articles of Enslavement” collections on Newspapers.com for free.

Webinar: Journey to Freedom
Webinar: Journey to Freedom Part 2

Another rich collection of records can be found in the Freedmen’s Bureau Records available on Ancestry. They also contain a wide range of information and insights into the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, which may be very emotional and revealing about the experiences of individuals and families. Some records may show how your family forged a new path after emancipation, while others might describe heartbreaking situations. Still, these records can help you better understand your family’s story.

Webinar: Navigating Freedmen's Bureau Records

The vast collection of yearbooks and school catalogs available on Ancestry can also help your family history research, especially in the early to mid-1900s. Nicka will show you how to make the most of this collection. You may discover photographs of your ancestors, and you might use these records to identify migration patterns. You may be able to narrow down the time window when your family from the South moved to Detroit or St. Louis, for example.

Webinar: Historically Black College and University Records on Ancestry | Tips & Tricks

More Ancestry Webinars Available to View

More than three dozen family history webinars—on a wide range of topics—are available to view for free. To see what’s available, and what’s coming soon, visit Virtual Events & Webinars.

Webinar Series: Researching African American Ancestors