African American Resources for Florida

African American Online Genealogy Records

Introduction
A list of resources for researching African American ancestors in Florida.

Online Resources
Record Collections 1830-1993 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection  1865-1872 at FamilySesarch — How to Use this Collection  1865-1872 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection  1865-1874 United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection  1867-1945 Florida, State Census, 1867-1945 at Ancestry ($) 1877-1939 at FamilySearch; index — How to Use this Collection  1880-1935 at FamilySearch; index — How to Use this Collection  1880-1935 at FamilySearch; index — How to Use this Collection </li> 1885 Florida, State Census, 1885 at Ancestry ($)</li> 1900-1921 at FamilySearch; index — How to Use this Collection </li> African American Digital Bookshelf - a growing list of digital books on FamilySearch and other websites</li> Discover Freedmen - this site searches all of the Freedmen's Bureau record collections on FamilySearch altogether (and redirects there)</li> Lists of Sources

Florida African American Cemeteries - list of cemeteries and tombstones</li> Lowcountry Africana is dedicated to documenting the family and cultural heritage of African Americans in the historic rice-growing areas of South Carolina, Georgia and extreme northeastern Florida.</li> Florida African American Heritage</li> Access Genealogy: Florida African American Genealogy</li> Genealogy Center: African American Gateway - contains links to societies, transcriptions of manuscripts, and a good bibliography of Florida books concerning African Americans.</li> African American Griots has links to military, cemeteries, censuses, vital records, etc.</li>

Research Strategy

 * Delbra D. McGriff, comp. The Black experience : a guide to Afro-American resources in the Florida State Archives. Tallahassee, Florida : Florida Department of State Division of Library and Information Services, 1991. FS Library 975.9 A1 no. 122

History
Florida Memory, The Black Experience: A Guide to African American Resources in the State Library and Archives of Florida (accessed 6 April 2012).</li> Brown, Canter, Jr. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867-1924, (Tuscaloosa, Alabama:University of Alabama Press, c1998). </li> Richardson, Joe Martin. African Americans in the reconstruction of Florida, 1865-1877. ( Tuscaloosa;: University of Alabama Press, [2008]). Find at a library near you.</li>

Biographies
Access Genealogy. Florida Slave Narratives. (accessed 6 July 2012). Interviews with former slaves done during the 1930s.</li>

Cemeteries

 * Access Genealogy: Florida African American Cemeteries. This is a list of African American cemeteries in many of the counties in Florida. Some have links to transcripts of the tombstones in the cemetery.
 * Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society. Key West African Cemetery. This report details the evidence of an African cemetery at Higgs Beach in Key West, Florida, and describes how it was located. Includes facsimiles of historical records, maps, and photos. In 1860, the U.S. Navy intercepted three American-owned slave ships taking Africans to Cuba. Now refugees, the Africans were taken to Key West before being sent to Liberia. Many died and were buried at Higgs Beach.

Census Records

 * Florida, State Census, 1867-1945 ($) - information usually includes name, residence, age, gender, race, relation to family, marital status, birthplace and parents' birthplace, occupation, and degree of education
 * 1885 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection
 * 1935 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection
 * 1945 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection
 * 1880 Census African Born Blacks and Mulattos USGenWeb - lists name, relationship, year born, sex, race,and birth place.


 * Florida State Genealogical Society. Census" Department for the South, November 1864, for Jacksonville, Fernandina and St. Augustine, Florida : ordered by the Department of the South, Hilton Head, South Carolina.Bowie, Maryland : Heritage Books, Inc., 2002. FS Library 975.91 X2f

Church Records

 * Larry Eugene Rivers and Canter Brown. Laborers in the vineyard of the Lord : the beginnings of the AME Church in Florida, 1865-1895.Gainesville, Florida : University Press of Florida, c2001. FS Library 975.9 K2r

Plantation
Sankofagen: Florida plantations and slave labor sites

Law and Legislation

 * State slavery statutes: Florida, ca. 1822-1865 (16 fiche) FS Library 6118905

Other Records

 * "Census" Department for the South, November 1864, for Jacksonville, Fernandina and St. Augustine, Florida : ordered by the Department of the South, Hilton Head, South Carolina. Florida State genealogical Society. FS Library 975.91 X2f

Military Records

 * Documents Relating to the Military and Naval Service of Blacks Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War, (Washington [District of Columbia]:The National Archives, 1973), on 4 microfilm reels (now digitized) -.

Newspapers

 * Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery

Probate Records
Garrett-Nelson, LaBrenda. Gleaning Information about Enslaved Ancestors from Probate Files NGS Magazine 48 #2 (April-June 2022): 23–27. FS Library 973 D25ngs

Freedman’s Bank
An excellent source is the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company (visit the African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records page to learn more). This company was created to assist African American soldiers of the Civil War and freed slaves. Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers from 3 March 1865 to 25 July 1874 may list the name of the depositor, date of entry, age, birthplace, residence, complexion, name of employer or occupation, wife or husband’s name, death information, children’s names, name of father and mother, brothers’ and sisters’ names, remarks, and signature. Early books sometimes contained the name of the former master or mistress and the name of the plantation. Copies of death certificates were sometimes attached to the entries. The collection is organized alphabetically by state, then city where the bank was located, then date the account was established, then account number.

Online collections of Freedman's Bank records:


 * 1865-1874 United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection
 * 1965-1871 U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1871 at Ancestry ($)
 * 1866-1872 Registers of Signatures of Depositors, 1866-1872 - Freedman's Savings and Trust Company (Tallahassee, Florida)

Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was created by the US government in 1865 until 1872 to assist former slaves in the southern United States. The Bureau created a wide variety of records extremely valuable to genealogists. Such documents include censuses, marriage records, and medical records. These records often include full names, former masters and plantations, and current residences. For 1865 and 1866, the section on abandoned and confiscated lands includes the names of the owners of the plantations or homes that were abandoned, confiscated, or leased. It gives the county and location, a description of the house, the number of acres owned, and the number of cabins of former slaves. These films do not appear to contain the names of former slaves.

To find Freedmen's Bureau records:


 * DiscoverFreedmen - the search on this site will utilize all of the Freedmen's Bureau records on FamilySearch, including:
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Other FamilySearch collections not included:


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Slavery Records

 * Access Genealogy. Florida Slave Narratives. Interviews with former slaves done during the 1930s,
 * Florida: Leon County Enslaved Persons and Slaveholders is a database of enslaved persons extracted from Leon County inventories and appraisal books 1853-1865.

Birth

 * at FamilySearch; Index — How to Use this Collection

Marriage

 * at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection

The Freedmen's Bureau (1865-1872) was created by the US government to assist former slaves in the southern United States. One of their responsibilities was to record the marriages (past and present) of the former slaves. These records can be found in the collections below and include the lists of marriages that occurred previously, marriage certificates, and marriage licenses. The information contained on the records may include the name of the husband and wife/groom and bride, age, occupation, residence, year or date of marriage, by whom, number of children, and remarks.


 * United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection
 * U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867 at Ancestry

Death

 * at FamilySearch; Index — How to Use this Collection
 * at FamilySearch; Index — How to Use this Collection
 * at FamilySearch; Index — How to Use this Collection

Voting Registers

 * Voter Registration Rolls, 1867-68. Florida Memory. State Library & Archives of Florida
 * Florida. Secretary of State. Voter Registration Rolls, 1867-1905. 2 rolls
 * Tallahassee Genealogical Society.Florida voter registration lists, 1867-68. Tallahassee, Florida: Tallahassee Genealogical Society, 1992. FS Library 975.9 N4t Includes the counties of Hernando, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Nassau, Orange, Polk, Putnam, St. Johns, Santa Rosa, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington counties.

Archives and Libraries
African-American Research Library and Cultural Center 2650 Sistrunk Boulevard Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311 Phone: (954) 357-6282 Website: Library and Cultural Center There are branches in various locations. They have resources with information on local history and books from Africa, the Caribbean and North and South America.

Africana Heritage Project University of South Florida (USF) 4202 East Fowler Avenue Tampa, Florida 33620 Email: info@africanaheritage.com Website: Africana Heritage Project Their mission "is to rediscover precious records that document the names and lives of former slaves, freed persons and their descendants, and share those records on this free Internet site."

Carol E. Mundy African American Cultural and Diasporic Research Center University of Central Florida Building: CNH110 4000 Central Florida Blvd Orlando, Florida 32816 Phone: (407) 823-0026 Email: africana@ucf.edu Website: Cultural and Diasporic Research Center The research center promotes the study of African American history and research the history that pertains to the central Florida area.

Meek-Eaton Black Archives Florida A&M University 445 Gamble Street Tallahassee, Florida 32307 Phone: (850) 599-3020 Website: Meek-Eaton Black Archives The majority of the archival holdings are records about the history of Africans and African Americans, especially their institutions and organizations, with an impressive holding of manuscripts, rare books, journals, magazines, maps, newspapers, and photographs.

State Library and Archives of Florida R.A. Gray Building, Second Floor 500 South Bronough Street Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0250 Phone: (850) 245-6600 Website: State Library and Archives of Florida The Archives is the central repository for the state government. It collects historically significant records, including private manuscripts.


 * Delbra D. McGriff, compiled. The Black experience : a guide to Afro-American resources in the Florida State Archives Tallahassee, Florida : Florida Department of State Division of Library and Information Services, 1991 FS Library 975.9 A1 no. 122

Societies
Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Central Florida Chapter P.O. Box 1347 Orlando, Florida 32802-1347 Email: centralflorida@aahgs.org Website: Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network P.O. Box 4261 Tallahassee, Florida 32315 Telephone: (850) 681-7881 Website: Heritage Preservation Network "Its mission is to promote the preservation of African American landmarks and legacies...". It has a directory of Florida African-American museums with links to their websites.