African American family history carries a structural challenge no other American research does: the 1870 federal census was the first to record formerly enslaved people by name. Behind that line, the ordinary tools of genealogy thin out — and different sources, read with different skills, take over. This is research we do constantly, and it is some of the most meaningful work we deliver.

The records after 1870

  • Federal censuses — every decade from 1870 through 1950, tracking families through Reconstruction and the Great Migration.
  • Vital records, church registers, and obituaries — the backbone of any documented line.
  • Military records — from the United States Colored Troops of the Civil War through both World Wars, service files rich in personal detail.

The records that reach behind 1870

  • Freedmen's Bureau records (1865–1872) — labor contracts, marriage registers, hospital and ration records: names, family relationships, and places, recorded at the moment of emancipation.
  • Freedman's Savings Bank records — account applications that often name parents, siblings, and birthplaces.
  • Church and community records — congregations kept their own histories when the state did not.
  • Estate, deed, and court records of the enslavement era — documents that recorded enslaved people as property. Reading them takes skill, and it takes care; they are also, often, the only written trace of a name, and treating them rigorously is how those names are recovered.

How we approach it

We work generation by generation, verifying each link against the record, and we are honest at every step: some eras are genuinely harder to document, some lines can be carried behind 1870 and some cannot, and we will never dress a guess as a finding. Family memory matters more in this research than almost any other — the names, places, and stories your family carries are often the key that unlocks the written record, which is why our projects begin with what you know and why many families pair the research with an oral-history session.

What's realistic?

Most lines can be documented solidly through the twentieth and late nineteenth centuries; many can be carried into the enslavement era, and some further. The free assessment exists exactly for this: we look at what survives for your family and tell you honestly what can be traced before you spend anything.

Sapling.Family is a family-history research service led by Professor Cisco Bradley, a historian at Pratt Institute. Every project begins with a free assessment — we look at what records exist for your family and tell you honestly what can be traced, before you decide anything. See packages & pricing or explore a complete sample report.