If you are ever in the Fredericksburg area and visit the library, here is a long list of resources I edited to assist in conducting genealogical research. I made this list several years ago and it probably needs a little updating, but it is still very relevant. My goal was to make this list easy for patrons to use and locate materials, and I didn’t use a particular format for citing.
African American Genealogy Resources
ANF: Adult Non Fiction
R: Reference
VR: Virginiana Room, Headquarters Library
VRD: Virginiana Room Duplicate Shelving; see reference for assistance
VRL: Virginiana Room Locked Cabinet; see reference for assistance
Genealogy Guidebooks
African American Genealogical Sourcebook. 1995. [VR 929.1 Af]
Beasley, D. Family Pride: The Complete Guide to Tracing Your African-American Genealogy. 1997. [VR 929.1 Be] [ANF 929.373 Be]
Blockson, C. Black Genealogy. 1991. [ANF 929.1 Bl]
Braxton, S. J. Guide to Tracing Your African Ameripean Civil War Ancestor. 1997. [VR 929.Br]
Burroughs, Tony. Black Roots: A Beginner’s Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree. 2002. [VR and ANF 929.1 Bu]
The Family Tree Guide Book: Everything You Need to Know to Trace Your Genealogy Across North America. 2002. [ANF 929.1072 Fa]
Fears, M. J.L. Slave Ancestral Research: It’s Something Else. 1995. [VR 929.1 Fe]
Gates, H. L. Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Yours. 2007. [ANF 929.1072 Ga]
Newman, D. L. Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives. 1984. [VR 016.973 Ne]
Peters, J. W. Local Records and Genealogy: A Primer for Family Historians. 1992. [VR 929.1 Pe]
Peters, J. W. Local Sources for African-American Family Historians: Using County Court Records and Census Returns. 1993 [VR 929.1 Pe]
Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources. 2004. [VR 929.1 Re]
Streets, D. H. Slave Genealogy: A Research Guide with Case Studies. 1986. [VR 929.1 St]
Thackery, D. Finding Your African American Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide. 2000. [VR 929.1 Th]
The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. 1997. [VR 929.1 So]
Walton-Raji, A. Y. Black Indian Genealogy Research. 1993. [VR 929.1 Wa]
Woodtor, D. Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African –American Genealogy and Historical Identity. 1999. [ANF 305.Wo]
Vital Records, Census, and Statistical Information
Bell, J.C. Louisa County Records You Probably Never Saw of 18th Century Virginia. 1983. [VR 929.3755465 Lo]
Certificates and Registry of Free Negroes, City of Fredericksburg, 1790-1862. [VRL]
Celebrating Our Heritage: Holy, Hallowed and Historical 1888-1998; Shiloh Baptist Church (New Site). 1998-2000. [VR 975.5366 Ce]
Chappawamsic Baptist Church (Stafford County, Virginia). Records, 1766-1919. Two volumes. [VR 975.526 Re]
Collins, H. R. Caroline County, Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics of Death Records, 1853-1896. 1999. [VR 929.3755362 Co]
Collins, H. R. Caroline County, Virginia Death Records (1919-1994) from The Caroline Progress, A Weekly Newspaper Published in Bowling Green, Virginia. 1995. [VR 929.3755362 Co]
Death Notices from the Free Lance-Star 1992. 1993? [VR 070 Fr]
Death Notices from the Free Lance-Star 1993-1996. 1996. [VR 070 Fr]
Greene, R. E. Black Courage, 1775-1783: Documentation of Black Participation in the American Revolution. 1984. [VR 929.373 Gr]
Heinegg, P. Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia. 1992. [VR 929.3755 He]
Heinegg, P. Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. 2001. Two volumes. [VR 929.3755 He]
Hodge, R. A. Birth Records, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1853-1896. 1980. Two volumes. [VR 929.3755366 Ho]
_____. Birth Records, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 1900-1940 (colored). 1998. [VR 929.3755366 Ho].
_____. Fredericksburg, Virginia, Death Records, 1853-1895. 1980. [VR 929.3755366]
_____. An Index to the Death Notices in the Free Lance-Star, 1981-1991. 1992. [VR 070 Fr]
_____. An Index to the Newspaper Death Notices, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1990. 1990. [0.70 Fr]
_____. An Index to the Newspaper Death Notices, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1991. 1991. [VR 070 Fr]
_____. Indexes to the Death Notices in the Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 1981- 1983. 1981-1983. [VR 070 Fr]
_____. Indexes to the Death Notices in the Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 1984- 1986. 1984-1986. [VR 070 Fr]
____. Indexes to the Death Notices in the Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia) 1987-1989. 1987-1989. [VR 070 Fr]
____. Indexes to the Death Notices in the Virginia Star (Culpeper, Virginia), 1919-1928). 1982. [VR 070 Vi]
____. Indexes to the Death Notices in the Virginia Star (Culpeper, Virginia), 1929-1953. 1982. [VR 070 Vi]
_____. Shiloh Cemetery: A List of Names. 1981. [VR 975.5366 Sh]
_____. Some Pre-1871 Vital Statistics of Colored Persons of Culpeper County, Virginia. 1978. [VR 929.3755392]
Index to Certificates and Registry of Free Negroes, City of Fredericksburg, 1790-1862. [VRL]
Indexes to the Death Notice in the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1997-2000. [2000?] [VR 070 Fr]
Lee, E. N. King George County, Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Death Records, 1853-1896. 1995. [VR 929.375525 Le]
List of Female Colored Voters Registered at Lower Precinct in Fredericksburg City, Virginia Since January 1, 1904. Two volumes. [VRL]
List of Female Colored Voters Registered at Upper Precinct in Fredericksburg City, Virginia Since January 1, 1904. Two volumes. [VRL]
“List of Free Blacks in Westmoreland County, Virginia 1801.” The Virginia Genealogist31:1 (January –March 1987). [VR 051 Vi]
List of Male and Female Colored Voters, 1904-1905, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 198-? [VR 929.3755366 Li]
List of Male Colored Voters Registered at Lower Precinct in Fredericksburg City, Virginia since January 1. 1904. Two volumes. [VRL]
List of Male Colored Voters Registered at Upper Precinct in Fredericksburg City, Virginia, since January 1. 1904. Two volumes. [VRL]
Obituaries as Published in the Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Virginia: January 1, 2001-December 31, 2004. [2005?] [VR 070 Fr]
Plunkett, Michael. Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts. 1990.[VR 016.975 Pl]
Potts, H. E. A Comprehensive Name Index for the American Slave. 1997. [VR 929.373 Po]
Provine, D. S. District of Columbia Free Negro Registers, 1821-1861. Two volumes. [VR 929.3753 Po]
Smithson, R. E. Register of Prominent Black Americans: Virginia. 1990. [VR 920 Sm]
The Parish Register of Christ Church, Middlesex County, Va. From 1653-1812. 1988. [VR 975.533 Ch]
Virginia Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics. [Registers of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Virginia] [19–?] [VR Microforms 317.55 Vi]
Virginia Slave Births Index, 1853-1865. 2007. Five volumes. [VR 929.3755 Vi]
Local Area (Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and Westmoreland) History
Burton, C. African-American Education in Westmoreland County. 1999. [VR 975.524 Bu]
Burton, C. Westmoreland County. 2000. [VR 925.524 Bu]
Civil Rights: Fredericksburg’s Story. 1997. [DVDs 9.755 C58, Videos 9.755 F85]
Fitzgerald, R. C. A Different Story: A Black History of Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, Virginia. 1979. [VR 975.5366 Fi]
Miller, T. African Americans in Spotsylvania County. 2008. [VR and ANF 975.5365 Mi]
OBrion, C. G. Coping with Jim Crow: Black Education in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1905-1963. 1990. [VR 975.5366 Ob]
Personal and Family Histories
Blight, D. W. A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom: Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation. 2007. [VR and ANF 973.7115 Bl]
Conway, H. L. The Harry Conway Family History. 1997. [VR 929.2 Con]
Ellison, C. J. Brown, Thompson, Jerome: Our Family History: 1821-1991: Celebrating 170 Years of Our Family’s Roots. [1991]. [VR 929.2 Bro]
God Made Man, Man Made the Slave: The Autobiography of George Teamoh. 1990. [VR 921 Tea]
Gordon-Reed, A. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. 2008. [VR and ANF 921 Hemin]
Howard-Douglas, D. The Descendants of the First Mitchell Wilson of Westmoreland County, Virginia: 1824 to 2002. 2002. [VRD 929.2 Wi]
John Washington’s Civil War: A Slave Narrative. 2008. [VR and ANF 973.7115 Wa]
Lanier, S. Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family. 2000. [VR 920 La]
Madden, T.O. We Were Always Free: The Maddens of Culpeper County, Virginia: A Two-Hundred –Year Family History. 1992. [VR and ANF 920 Ma]
Reed, B. The Slave Families of Thomas Jefferson: A Pictorial Study Book with an Interpretation of His Farm Book in Genealogy Charts. 2007. Two Volumes. [VR 929.1 Re]
Russell, J. D. Beyond the Rim: From Slavery to Redemption in Rappahannock County, Virginia. 2005. [ANF 975.5395 Ru]
Stanton, L. Free Some Day: The African-American Families of Monticello. 2000. [VR 929.1 St]
Wills, A. L. Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color: Four Hundred Years of an American Families’ History. 2003. [VR 929.3 Wi]
Virginia African American History and Information
Afro-American History and Culture. 1999. [VR and ANF 975.5 Af]
Barber, L. African American History Sources: A Bibliography. 1992. [VR 305.896 Ba]
Before Freedom Came: African-American Life in the Antebellum South: To Accompany an Exhibition Organized by the Museum of the Confederacy. 1991. [VR and ANF 305.8 Be]
Bogger, T. Free Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia, 1790-1860: The Darker Side of Freedom. 1997. [VR 975.5521 Bo]
Boyle, S.P. The Desegregated Heart: A Virginian’s Stand in Time of Transistion. 1962. [VR 323.1 Bo]
Brewer, J. H. The Confederate Negro: Virginia’s Craftsmen and Military Laborers, 1861-1865. 1969. [VR 973.715 Br]
Buni, A. The Negro in Virginia Politics, 1902-1965. 1967. [VR and ANF 323.11 Bu]
Chester, Thomas Morris. Thomas Morris Chester, Black Civil War Correspondent: His Dispatches from the Virginia Front. 1989. [VRD 929.7415 Ch]
Coleman, Mary Haldane Begg. Virginia Silhouettes: Contemporary Letters Concerning Negro Slavery in the State of Virginia, to which is Appended, A Dissertation on Slavery with a proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of Virginia. 1934. [VRD 975.503 Co]
Craven, W.F. White, Red, and Black: The Seventeenth-Century Virginian. 1971. [VR 975.502 Cr]
Cross-White, A. Charlottesville, An African-American Community. 1998. [VR 975.5481 Cr]
Dailey, J.E. Before Jim Crow: The Politics of Race in Postemancipation Virginia. 2000. [ANF 975.5041 Da]
Davis, V. A. Here I Lay My Burdens Down: A History of the Black Cemeteries of Richmond, Virginia. 2003. [VRD 929.509755451 Da]
Egerton, D. R. Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802.1993. [VR and ANF 975.503 Eg]
Ely, M. P. Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from 1790s through the Civil War. 2004. [ANF 975.5632 El]
Fox-Genovese, E. Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South. 1988. [VR 305.4 Fo]
Guild, J. P. Black Laws of Virginia: A Summary of the Legislative Acts of Virginia Concerning Negroes from Earliest Times to the Present. 1995. [VR 346.013 Gu]
The Heritage and Culture of African Americans in Virginia: A Guide to the Sites. 2001. [VR, R and ANF 975.5 He]
Jordan, E. L. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia. 1995. [VR and ANF 973.74755 Jo]
Kulikoff, A. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800. 1988. [ANF 975.518 Ku]
Lebsock, S. The Free Women of Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1784-1860. 1984. [VR 305.42 Le]
Lewis, R. L. Coal, Iron, and Slaves: Industrial Slavery in Maryland and Virginia, 1715- 1865. 1979. [VR 331.117 Le]
McGuire, L. H. Uprooted and Transplanted: From Africa to America: Focus on African-Americans in Essex County, Virginia: Oppressions, Achievements, and Contributions, the 1600s-1900s. 1999. [VR 975.534 Mc]
McLeRoy, S. Strangers in Their Midst: The Free Black Population of Amherst County,Virginia. 1993. [VR 929.3755496 Mc]
Morgan,E. S. American Slavery, American Freedom. 2003. [ANF 975.502 Mo]
Morgan, P. D. Slave Counterpart: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry. 1998. [ANF 305.8 Mo]
O’Brien, J. T. Reconstruction in Richmond: White Restoration and Black Protest, April-June 1865. 1981. [VR 975.5451 Ob]
Plunkett, M. Afro-American Sources in Virginia: A Guide to Manuscripts. 1990. [VR 016.975 Pl]
Readings in Black and White: Lower Tidewater Virginia. 1982. [VR 975.51 Re]
Rose, R. A. Norfolk, Virginia. 2000. [VR 975.552 Ro]
Russell, J. H. The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865. 1969. [VR 305.8 Ru]
Russell, L. F.Black Baptist Secondary Schools in Virginia, 1887-1957: A Study in Black History. 1981. [VR 373 Ru]
Savitt, T. L. Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia. 1978. [VR 610.9 Sa]
Schwarz, P. J. Slave Laws in Virginia. 1996. [ANF 326 Sc]
Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution. 1983. [VR 326 Sl]
Smith, J. D. Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics, and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia. 2002. [ANF 975.5042]
Stevenson, B. E. Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South. 1996. [ANF 306.8 St]
Takagi, M. Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction: Slavery in Richmond, Virginia, 1782-1865. 1999. [ANF 326 Ta]
Tate, T. W. The Negro in Eighteenth Century Williamsburg. 1965, 1987 printing. [VR and ANF 305.8 Ta]
Taylor, A.A. The Negro in the Reconstruction of Virginia. 1926. [VR 975.504 Ta]
Tyler-McGraw, Marie. In Bondage and Freedom: Antebellum Life in Richmond, Virginia. 1988. [VR and ANF 975.5451 Ty]
Virginia Landmarks of Black History: Sites on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. [VR, ANF and R 728 Vi]
Virginia Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Virginia from Interviews with Former Slaves. 2006? [ANF 306.362 Vi]
Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves. 1976. [VR 301.45 We] [ANF 305.8 We]
White, D.G. Ar’n’t I a Woman? : Female Slaves in the Plantation South. 1985. [305.56 Wh]
Writer’s Program. Virginia. The Negro in Virginia. 1969. [VR 326 Ne]
Online Genealogy Sources
Afrigeneas: African Ancestored Genealogy. http://www.afrigeneas.com
Ancestry database. Ancestry is accessed for free at any CRRL library branch.
http://www.ancestry.com.
Central Rappahannock Heritage Center. http:www.crhcarchives.org
Cyndi’s List: African American resources. http://www.cyndislist.com/african.htm
FamilySearch: African American database.
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default/asp?page=home/welcome/site_resources.asp
Fredericksburg Research Resources.
http://resources.umwhisp.org/fredburg.htm
Freedmen’s Bureau Online: Virginia. http://www.freedmensbureau.com/virginia/index.htm
GenForum. http://genforum.genealogy.com
Geni: A private place to build your family tree. http://www.geni.com
My Heritage: Share your family tree. http://www.myheritage.com
HeritageQuest. Access granted at many local libraries with a library card.
The National Archives: African American Research.
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/heritage/african-american/index.html
Roots Television. http://www.rootstelevision.com
Rootsweb. http://www.rootsweb.com
Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia. http://www.virginiamemory.com
