My early ancestry discoveries: A few tips for getting started

I mentioned in my first post that my genealogy bug was inspired by the family scrapbook project I worked on for my Big Mama’s birthday. I always knew a bit about her father’s family (our Big Daddy). He didn’t pass until I was 10 years old and I remember him well. But I knew very little about her mother’s side – in fact all I knew was her name, Eartha Dorsey. She passed away in 1969, long before my generation came along. So, I thought it would be fun to do a little research on her to see if I could find anything to add to my family memory book. Little did I know Eartha would be a key to unlocking the fascinating family history of my Louisiana Creole ancestors that included formerly enslaved people becoming significant landowners, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a USCT Civil War veteran and even the difficult revelation of ancestors who were free people of color that bought and sold enslaved blacks. I can’t wait to introduce them to you! But for now, let’s talk a little about how I got started on the road to finding them.

Your best starting point: The Elders

I figured the best place to start was with Big Mama herself and she proved to be a wonderful resource! Our elders usually have firsthand memories to share and can give you the first vital pieces of the puzzle: names and locations. Even if they don’t remember all the details, the names and places they recall can help you know where to start looking. In my very early conversations with Big Mama, I simply started by asking her what and who she remembered. She told me not only her maternal grandparents names – Florence Jones and Landry Dorsey – but also that she had known her great grandfather, Paul Jones, when she was a little girl. She also recalled two places – Boley and Okemah, OK. Then she sent me a follow up email (because my Big Mama is a tech savvy old gal! 😊) with more Jones family names. She didn’t quite recall how they fit into the family landscape, but she knew the names. That was enough to get me off to the races!

Ancestry and Family Search

In 2011 I signed up for Ancestry.com and started plugging in names and places that I’d discussed with Big Mama. Online research tools have, of course, revolutionized genealogy research and made records easily accessible that were once only available to those that could physically visit the archives where the records were housed. In my opinion, Ancestry is still the best online resource for novice family historians since the interface is pretty user friendly. It’s easy to create a tree on the site by starting with yourself and working backward with as many generations as you know. Soon, you’ll get the ever important “hint” leaf that pops up offering suggestions for records that may match your ancestor. BUT another very important online tool is Family Search, a product of the Mormon Church that is one of the largest repositories of genealogical records in the world. Their database encompasses collections that are vital to African American research that Ancestry doesn’t have, like the Freedman’s Bureau Labor Contracts records that can give you a snapshot of your ancestor’s whereabouts and fate right after they were emancipated.

Using the Census records

I am going to delve deeper into the wonderful, confusing world of census records in future posts, but for now here are a few things to note up front:

• The US Census is taken every 10 years and is released to the public 72 years after the census date. Which means the most recently available census is for the year 1940. So if the oldest living person in your family was born after 1940, keep in mind that you won’t find them on the census yet. That’s why its important to ask them for names of any older people they remember. Luckily for me, Big Mama made her first appearance in the 1940 Census, so I was able to start with her in her mother and father’s household and work backwards.

• Each census doesn’t contain the same information nor was it collected in the same way each time. For black people, it is important to note that your ancestor’s race can appear to change from census to census. They could be called “mulatto” on one census, “negro” on another and “colored” on yet another. For the most part, there was really no rationale for the designations beyond how the census taker perceived a person from their physical appearance. So, in other words, don’t get stuck by being color struck! It is also helpful to know what instructions the census takers were given in how they were supposed to collect data because that also determined whether a person would be called mulatto, negro, white, Indian, colored or any other designation. The History page of the US Census Bureau website details the instructions for each census since 1790.
• Read carefully! The census takers couldn’t spell, and transcribers can’t see! If there is one thing I’ve learned from staring at pages and pages of census records, it’s that many times you can’t find your ancestor because the census taker did an amazingly terrible job spelling their name. Further, transcriptions are often incorrect. Volunteer transcribers are doing the Lord’s work for us, but human error plays a big role in whether you can find the info you’re looking for in genealogy databases. And sometimes, they completely skip a name on a census record, making the person unsearchable. Moral of the story is, ALWAYS look at the actual document image yourself and don’t rely solely on the transcriptions to get it right!

In the genealogy game, social media is your friend

I found my genealogy soulmates on Facebook! I would never have gotten as far as I have without meeting fellow amateur family historians in Facebook groups. One group in particular has a special place in my heart, the one focused on Avoyelles Parish, LA. Before I started researching, I had no idea that I had relatives from this area. All I knew was Big Mama’s family was from Oklahoma. But the search led me back from Oklahoma to Avoyelles. How fortunate I was then to stumble on a Facebook group dedicated solely to researching people from this area! And guess what? I found cousins! Lots of cousins I never knew who were willing to teach me about the culture of the area and help me find anything I needed to learn more about our shared ancestors. Since then, I’ve joined several similar Facebook groups dedicated to place-based ancestor discovery. Definitely seek out your genealogy tribe in your social media channels!