African American Resources for Virginia

United States   Virginia    African Americans

This Wiki page describes research strategies, and major sources of information about African American families from Virginia. As you read this Wiki page, also study the African American Research Wiki pages, which will help you understand more strategies, and the contents and uses of other African American genealogical records.

Cohabitation Records Cohabitation records are registers created when the former slaves legalized their marriages which was not allowed until 1866. This valuable genealogical data is being made available online through the Library of Virginia's Virgina Memory Collection. See the online resources below for a direct link to the database.

Freedman's Savings and Trust Company signature cards or registers may list the slave's former masters, birth date, birthplace, occupation, residences, death information, parents, children, spouse, or siblings. Virginia had three branches of this bank:


 * Lynchburg 1871
 * Norfolk 1871-1874
 * Richmond 1867-1874

The signature registers for these branches are listed in:

Freedman's Savings and Trust Company (Washington, DC) 1865-1874. Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1969. (Family History Library film 928591.) In each city, depositors' names are arranged by account number.

Two valuable sources for the period after the Civil War are:

United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1870. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1977. (Family History Library films 1549578-97.) Most volumes are indexed.

United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1988. (Family History Library films 1601562-628.) There are several indexes.

Prior to the Civil War, each Virginia county court kept a “register of free negroes.” These registers may give the person's name, age, color, stature, marks and scars, and name the court of emancipation. Several of these registers are found at the Library of Virginia. The Family History Library has copies of some of these registers. They are usually found in the Family History Library Place Search under VIRGINIA, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS.

Slave families freed prior to the Civil War are found in:

Heinegg, Paul. Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia: Including the Family Histories of More Than 80% of Those Counted as “All Other Free Persons” in the 1790 and 1800 Censuses. Reprint. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1993. (Family History Library book 973 F2h 1997.)

For an index of Slaves and Free Men of Color, listed in Index to Sons of the Revolution. . ., see the “Periodicals” section.

Slaves are sometimes mentioned in deeds (see the “Land and Property” section), in wills (see “Probate Records”), and in court order books (see “Court Records”). A few parish registers (see “Church Records”) list slaves who attended church with their masters. In Virginia the births of slave children should be listed in the County birth records after 1853.

Names of hundreds of runaway slaves, their descriptions, owners, and ages can be found in:

Windley, Lathan A., comp. Runaway Slave Advertisements. Four Volumes. (Virginia and North Carolina) Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983. (Family History Library book 975 F2wL.) For Virginia, see volume one.

Freedmen's Bureau Virginia Marriages ca. 1815-1866--Names of thousands of former slaves are included in these records. A free index can be viewed at FamilySearch Record Search. Records may include the name of the bride &amp; groom, date of marriage registration, residence, previous marriages, names and ages of children.

Virginia Plantation Records

Occasionally, slaves are mentioned in plantation records. The Family History Library has several series of plantation records from the periods before and after the Civil War. These are listed in the Author/Title Search of the Family History Library Catalog under the STAMPP, KENNETH M. or in the Subject Search under PLANTATION LIFE - VIRGINIA or PLANTATION LIFE - SOUTHERN STATES. Records are available at:

Library of Congress: inventory, Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=566380&disp=A+guide+to+records+of+ante%2Dbellum+Sout%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. C]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1534247.

University of Virginia Library: inventory, Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=566400&disp=A+guide+to+records+of+ante%2Dbellum+Sout%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. E]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1534274.

Duke University Library: inventory, Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=566404&disp=A+guide+to+records+of+antebellum+Souther%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. F]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1549774.

University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill: inventory,Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=378952&disp=A+guide+to+the+microfilm+edition+of+reco%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. J]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1672791.

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library: inventory, Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=746232&disp=A+guide+to+the+microfilm+edition+of+reco%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. K]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1844005. These records are from the Shirley plantation of the Carter family.

College of William and Mary, Earl Gregg Swem Library: inventory, Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=752557&disp=A+guide+to+the+microfilm+edition+of+reco%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. L]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1844318.

Virginia Historical Society: inventory, Family History Library book [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=754137&disp=A+guide+to+the+microfilm+edition+of+reco%20%20&columns=*,0,0 975 H2sm Ser. M]; original records, Family History Library films beginning with 1985945.

The Family History Library has microfilms of most of the records described in the guide booklets. Virginia plantation records are scattered throughout.

To learn about the laws that affected Virginia slaves, see:

Finkelman, Paul. State Slavery Statutes: Guide to the Microfiche Collection. Frederick, Maryland: University Publications of America, 1989. (Family History Library book 975 F23s.) Pages 317-56 pertain to Virginia and cover the years 1789-1865. The advertisements are indexed. The records list the names of many slaves and slave owners.

Online Resources

 * Register of Colored Persons…cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866
 * Freedmen's Bureau
 * Freedmen's Bureau Marriages 1815-1866
 * Virgina Slaves Freed After 1782
 * Cemeteries in Albemarle and Amherst Counties
 * J. F. Bell Funeral Home Records, Charlottesville, VA 1917-1989
 * Accomac Roots
 * Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States, From Interviews with Former Slaves
 * History of the American Negro, Virginia edition See page 728.
 * World War I History Commission Questionnaires.Read more about the questionnaires.
 * African-American Newspapers Held at the Library of Virginia
 * Reconstruction:The Second Civil War
 * State online resources for African-American genealogy: Virginia
 * More state online resources for African-American genealogy: Virginia
 * African-American Manuscripts (Virginia Historical Society)
 * Virginia Black History Archives Collections
 * Geography of Slavery in Virginia
 * African-Americans in Virginia

Family History Library Negro office holders in Virginia, 1865-1895, by Luther Porter Jackson