Introduction to African American Genealogy

Researching your African American ancestors can be complicated by laws and records that treated enslaved people as property prior to 1865. In this presentation MDAH senior historian William Thompson explains how to break through some of the barriers using Census, county, military, and other public records available in the MDAH archival collections. This presentation is part of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s genealogy workshop series. Searching for your Mississippi family? Start your search online at https://www.mdah.ms.gov/genealogy, and then plan your research visit to the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson.