African American Sources

Iredell County has a large African American population and sometimes doing genealogy in this field can be challenging. After the Civil War and southern slaves were freed, many did not have their own identities. Many were given the surnames of the plantations on which they worked and those names stuck with them and their descendants. Freed slaves were not in the US Federal Census until 1870, although there are ways of tracing some of these people back through other records. Many slave cemeteries have been lost over the years. The library has lots of resources for tracing African American lineage and staff is always happy to assist when research road blocks are reached.

Additional Online Resources

• Digital Library on American Slavery- A huge digital collection of slave records, mostly from North Carolina but other states and Washington D.C. are included. Not only can you find transcribed information on this site, you can also view original documents that have been digitized.

Ancestry Databases

Access Ancestry Library Edition through the library's website, then search for the following databases.

• 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedule

• 1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedule

• U.S. African American Newspapers 1829-1947

• African American Collection

• U.S. Colored Troops Service Records 1863-1865

Videos

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