Action in the Expo Hall: The Family History Guide Booth Goes Up for RootsTech 2020

The Family History Guide Booth going up at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah

RootsTech 2020 is definitely here. These photos show some of the progress in putting up the backdrop and the rest of the booth at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. Demonstrating and presenting at an Expo or Conference of this scale is a major operation. We began planning the booth and working out the schedule almost immediately following the last Conference in 2019. We also took some time out to plan for and have our Staff members, Angelle and Scott Anderson, attend and present at the recent RootsTech 2019 London Conference.

Here is another photo of the construction of the booth in the RootsTech 2020 Expo Hall to be ready for the opening on Wednesday, February 26, at 5:30 pm.

The Family History Guide Booth going up at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah

Under the direction of Bob Ives, you can see that having a booth like this is not just a matter of loading a few things in your car and putting them on a table in some hotel conference room.  Here is what it begins to look like a little later in the day.

The Family History Guide Booth going up at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah

We will have a live video feed from our booth area during the Conference. See the link on YouTube here:

https://youtu.be/K-5YGIevQ6I

I will be posting photos of the conference and some of the people involved over the next few days, but not writing a lot. I have too many meetings, presentations and too many people to talk to and that leaves little time for writing.

The Family History Guide Live at RootsTech 2020

RootsTech 2020 Booth

The Family History Guide is going to have a live video feed from RootsTech 2020 on the Expo Hall floor from our booth. You can see the link above. We will post more information about the video feed in the near future. See The Family History Guide Blog for updates.

New Feature on the FamilySearch Family Tree: Unfinished Attachments

You may or may not have noticed a new feature on the FamilySearch.org Family Tree: Unfinished Attachments. These new links tell users when there is more information in the source than has been attached to people in the Family Tree. If I click on one of the links, I will see one or more entries showing people who are listed in the document on the left side showing the record but not yet attached to anyone list of people in the Family Tree on the right side of the screen. Here is an example.

In this case, the first person listed in white indicating he is not attached, Henry M Tanner, is mentioned twice and is already attached above so this name can be ignored. The second name does not belong to the family but could be a relative and you might now have a research opportunity. In this particular case, the second name, J Golden Kimball, is not a relative and likewise could be ignored, but if you want to make sure all of the people are included you could find this person in the Family Tree and attach this record.

What this example does show is that there is sometimes a lot more information in the records than we initially extract and periodically reviewing the records could give you a whole new line of research.

For more complete instructions, see the FamilySearch Blog post, "New FamilySearch Feature “Unfinished Attachments” Brings New Discoveries to Your Tree."

I am finding a lot of skipped and omitted information because of this new feature.

See our new Explorations Videos on The Family History Guide YouTube Channel

Explorations: Iceland

The Family History Guide is producing a whole series of Exploration videos. You can see all of them on our YouTube Channel. Here is another example of the series.

Explorations: France

Be sure and stop by and see us all at RootsTech 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 26 -29, 2020.

How Complete Were the US Federal Censuses?

https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/wright-hunt.pdf

Gaining a historical perspective is difficult. Very few genealogists have an extensive background in history and particularly the history of the places where their ancestors lived and died. For example, let's suppose that in the year 2020 you live in a large metropolitan area of the United States. The current population of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) is about 19.9 million people. See "List of metropolitan statistical areas 2018." Compare that figure with the entire population of the United States at the time of the first U.S. Federal Census in 1790 of about 3.9 million residents. See "U.S. Population Throughout History." Of course, back in 1780, the U.S. government did not count the Native American or Spanish populations. Interestingly, the population of Utah, where I presently live in Provo, is about 3.2 million or roughly the same as the entire United States in 1790. The current population of Utah County, where Provo is located, is roughly equal to the entire estimated population of the United States in about 1730 or about 600,000 people.

From a genealogical viewpoint, the actual number of people in the part of North America who would have been counted in a European immigrant oriented census if one had been held before 1790 was fairly limited. The estimated European immigrant population of North American (excluding Spanish speaking people) started out in 1610 at about 350 and increased to about 3.9 million in 1790. Between 1790 and 1850 when the U.S. Federal Census first listed the entire family membership, the population is estimated to have increased to 23.1 million. We always need to remember that population estimates are cumulative and a baby born in 1610 could have still been living in 1690. Likewise, the current population estimate of the United States of about 327.2 million people includes people who could have been born in about 1920.

Now getting into the numbers, here is a chart from the U.S. Census Bureau with the number of people counted in each of the U.S. Federal Censuses. You can click on the image to see more detail or on the link to see the original.

https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/table-2.pdf

This still leaves the question of how accurate are these numbers? There has been a new study done as reported in the following article.

Hacker, J. David. "New Estimates of Census Coverage in the United States, 1850—1930." Social Science History 37, no. 1 (2013): 71-101. Accessed February 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23361113.

Access to the article is limited to subscribers or subject to a paywall, but the abstract indicates that there has always been an undercount and that the 1870 U.S. Federal Census has the highest rate of omissions. Because of the relationship between the U.S. Census numbers governmental representation, the issue of an undercount is highly politicized. Estimates of undercounts from 1880 to 1980 range from a low of 1.4% in the 1980 U.S. Federal Census to a high of 7.4 % in the 1890 census which was lost due to a fire and government bungling. The older estimates of the undercount in the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses range from 9% to as high as 23%. See the following article.

King, Miriam L., and Diana L. Magnuson. "Perspectives on Historical U.S. Census Undercounts." Social Science History 19, no. 4 (1995): 455-66. Accessed February 20, 2020. doi:10.2307/1171475.

The fact that there is an undercount should alert genealogists to the possibility that an over-reliance on census records to exclusion of other records would be extremely unwise. If you apply the figures for the undercount to the estimates for the population, you can begin to see that a missing name would not be an unusual situation to encounter.

One solution is to search for people in multiple census records particularly if there are state or local censuses. Even if a person was overlooked in one census, it is always possible that the person was counted in a succeeding census enumeration. These issues with the U.S. Census do not affect the utility of the census records, but they do imply that the undercount renders the census records unreliable, the numbers merely show the need to do thorough and as nearly possible using all the available records. 

Teaching Classes at RootsTech 2020

RootsTech 2020 has a busy schedule of regular classes for the Conference but you should also be aware that there are lots more classes presented in the Expo Hall by the various companies and entities. You may find that these classes are more pertinent to each particular entity than those in the classrooms. Obviously, some of the booths are from companies that are selling their products but the people presenting the classes are not necessarily connected to the companies. There are also games, giveaways, and prizes.

As always, I will have a busy time at RootsTech 2020. I have a number of classes to teach. I will teach two classes at the MyHeritage booth; one on Thursday at 5:30 and one on Saturday at 12:30. Here is a link to the whole MyHeritage schedule. There will be classes almost all day each day of the Conference. MyHeritage has a full schedule of other activities planned. Here is a short summary from an email I received.

From the moment the Expo Hall opens, MyHeritage will have a jam-packed schedule of lectures, demos, and activities. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from talented genealogists and DNA experts, meet some of the people behind our innovative technologies, and have fun when you join our social activities. Did I forget to mention you can win some prizes? ;-)

Beyond all that, many booth surprises await. Travel back in time and experience the Mayflower in a way that will forever change the way you view this historical event. Colorize your black and white photos and see your family history come to life with our new MyHeritage In Color™ feature. Participate in lots of fun games and activities that will help you enjoy family history in a new (and highly entertaining) way.

I will also be teaching at the Brigham Young University Family History booth. This is a photo from last year

 
For BYU, my classes are at 1:00 on Thursday, 1:00 on Friday, and 4:00 on Friday. there is a full schedule of classes from other presenters every day during the conference.

I will also be available at the Media Hub with the other Ambassadors although I do not have a fixed schedule.

Finally, last but not the least, My wife, Ann, and I will be spending a lot of time teaching, helping, and answering questions at The Family History Guide booth.

Here is a photo of Bob Taylor teaching a class. Even if you don't want to listen to a class, you can always come by the booth and sit and talk for a while.

Look for me and be sure to stop me and talk.

Historical Images Tool Finds UnIndexed Records in FamilySearch Catalog

https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/explore-historical-images/

To begin discussing the new Historical Images Tool, I think it is a good idea to know what it does and does not do. To understand what it does do, you need to understand why the tool was needed at all. Going back in time, FamilySearch's originating organization, the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), began microfilming genealogical records back in 1938. Eventually, the GSU amassed approximately 2.4 million rolls of microfilm. The GSU adopted the tradename of "FamilySearch" and began doing business as FamilySearch. In 2017 FamilySearch discontinued its microfilm circulation services. The majority of FamilySearch's vast microfilm collection (2.4M rolls) has now been digitized and are available online. The remaining microfilms (less than 350,000 rolls) are being digitally scanned and are projected to be completed sometime in 2021. See "UPDATE: FamilySearch Digital Records Access Replacing Microfilm." Before this date, FamilySearch had already converted its record acquisition efforts from microfilm to digital images. Record digitization is ongoing with more than 300 camera crews around the world and as noted above, the remaining microfilm is also being digitized.

According to the FamilySearch Company Facts, as of January 2020, there are about 7.77 billion searchable names in the indexed Historical Record Collections with about 1.41 billion searchable digital images but there are another 1.73 billion digital images published only in the FamilySearch Catalog.

Now I need to explain a little about the Indexing Project. FamilySearch primarily used and current uses individuals volunteers to index the digitized records. You can read more in this article: "Indexing Makes a Difference." But as the FamilySearch Blog article entitled, "FamilySearch’s 2 Billion Digitized Records," states:

It’s important to note the difference between digital record images and indexed records. A large portion of the digital images on FamilySearch are unindexed. They can be viewed using an image viewer, but can’t be searched by name and other search variables like a fully indexed collection would be. 

Anyone can help in the process of indexing record images like these after they are digitized. Learn more about how indexing works, and give it it a try.

Now, finding the records on the FamilySearch.org website takes time and quite a bit of searching experience. I made this video a while ago to talk about this subject.

Where are the Digitized Records on FamilySearch.org

With all that, there was a need for a tool to find the unindexed records. The principal and really the only accurate way to find pertinent genealogical records is through identifying the exact place an event occurred in an ancestor's or relative's life. A general or vague place is almost entirely useless for research. Very few names are so unique that a name search will find only one particular individual.

Just recently, FamilySearch introduced the Historical Images Tool to help find those unindexed records. Hopefully, you already understand the need for this tool and will simply be thankful to have an easier way to search the Catalog but if you are just now learning where all the rest of the digital images are, I hope you understand what you have been missing.

Over a Million Colorized Photos in 5 Days from MyHeritage

Quoting from the MyHeritage.com blog post entitled, "MyHeritage in Color™ Goes Viral: Over a Million Photos Already Colorized!"

5 days ago we released an amazing feature, MyHeritage In Color™, which automatically colorizes black and white photos with breathtaking results. 

We are indebted to Jason Antic and Dana Kelley of DeOldify for developing the wonderful colorization technology upon which this feature is based. 

The response has been incredible. The feature is a sensation: in the first 5 days, more than a million photos have been colorized — and the numbers keep growing! Users from all over the world have been stunned, and sometimes tearful, at how adding color can revive memories of their loved ones and change the way they relate to the photos. Many have shared with us that the colorized pictures have sparked interest in family history among the younger generation, and that seeing their ancestors in color makes them feel more real and tangible. Hardcore genealogists have been “complaining” that they will never get any other work done and spending long nights colorizing all their photos and marveling at the new details that suddenly emerge. Even people who have had a hard time connecting to genealogy before, have been scouring their homes for black and white photos to scan and colorize and are enthusiastically sharing the results with family and friends. It’s addictive! What a joy for genealogy! 

If you haven’t joined the fun yet, try it for yourself at www.myheritage.com/incolor. Anyone can colorize up to 10 photos for free, and an unlimited number of photos with a subscription.

The number is not surprising when you realize that MyHeritage has over 109 million users. Only less than 1% of the users would have to do 1 image each.  As you can see from the quote, you can colorize up to ten photos for free, but I can assure you that a subscription is worth the money.

Here is one of my old family photos showing my great uncles, Evan and Ivan Overson.

Here is the colorized version from MyHeritage.

The black and white photo is underexposed but you can see all the detail in the colorized photo. There is a link to colorize photos on the MyHertage.com website. You can also sign up for a free subscription with some significant limitations from the paid subscription.

Stymied by the Immigrant: Part Two

Immigrants seated on long benches, Main Hall, U.S. Immigration Station.

1991 was the year with the largest number of immigrants to the United States when a total of 1,825,595 people obtained legal residence in the United States. See "Table 1. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status: Fiscal Years 1820 to 2018." But the percentage of immigrants residing in the United States hit its highest percentage in 1890 with 14.8% of the population. The number of foreign-born people living in the United States was a record of 44.4 million in 1917. The current percentage of immigrants living in the U.S. is about 13.6% of the entire population; lower than the record. See "Key findings about U.S. immigrants." Despite current beliefs, the highest number of people who obtained permanent residency in the United States in 2018 did not come from Mexico, the highest number came from the Caribbean. See "Table 2. Persons Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Region and Selected Country of Last Residence: Fiscal Years 2016 to 2018." In 2016, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) removed a total of 240,255 aliens, a two percent increase over FY 2015, but a 24 percent decrease from FY 2014 and the total number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Removals has been dropping since 2012. Any numbers involving immigration are confusing because of the differences between legal entry, naturalization, deportation, and removal not to mention the political and social implications of such numbers.

Why should a genealogist be concerned about the details of the law and the numbers of immigration? This series isn't about immigration per se. It is about genealogy. The statistics can go on and on, but what they show for genealogists is that everyone in North and South America on every pedigree line will either find an end of their line with no more records available or an immigrant. Here is the rule: literally, every person (including the Native Americans) living in the country has immigrant ancestors if you believe the common consensus among scientists. See "A New History of the First Peoples in the Americas." From 1607 to the present, anyone from the United States who traces their ancestry back will eventually be looking at the existing immigration records.

So, from a genealogical standpoint, we should all be concerned about immigration. Since the passing in 1892 of "An Act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese or the Chinese Exclusion Act." Immigration into the United States has become steadily more controversial and complicated. For example, here is a short summary of what happened with the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers. Building on the 1875 Page Act, which banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law implemented to prevent all members of a specific ethnic or national group from immigrating. 

The act followed the Angell Treaty of 1880, a set of revisions to the U.S.–China Burlingame Treaty of 1868 that allowed the U.S. to suspend Chinese immigration. The act was initially intended to last for 10 years, but was renewed in 1892 with the Geary Act and made permanent in 1902. These laws attempted to stop all Chinese immigration into the United States for ten years, with exceptions for diplomats, teachers, students, merchants, and travelers. The laws were widely evaded. 

Exclusion was repealed by the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943, which allowed 105 Chinese to enter per year. Chinese immigration later increased with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which abolished direct racial barriers, and later by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the National Origins Formula.

At one point in my legal careers, because of my Spanish speaking background, I decided to see if I could extend my law practice into immigration law. I visited a lawyer friend who was involved in the immigration practice and borrowed some of his reference books on immigration. Almost immediately, I determined that the only thing worse than dealing with immigration was trying to work with U.S. tax law and I decided not to represent clients in either area. Fortunately, none of us need to become experts in current immigration law to research our immigrant ancestors (but it helps). The earliest records go way beyond looking at passenger lists and as we move from the 16th Century into the 21st Century the volume of records increases dramatically. For example, in my quote above, each of the changes in that one immigration law series creates a different set of records that could be searched to find the identity of an immigrant.

This series is going in-depth to discuss and identify those records that assist genealogists in finding their immigrant ancestors. Stay tuned.

For the previous post see the following:

Part One: https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2020/02/stymied-by-immigrant-part-one.html

Amazing New Technology: MyHeritage In Color™

https://blog.myheritage.com/2020/02/colorize-your-black-and-white-photos-automatically-with-myheritage-in-color/

This fabulous new technology has been online only one day as of the date of this post. The concept of MyHeritage In Color™ is fairly simple: it adds outstanding color to existing black and white photographs. Let me start with an example from my own archive. This is an original photo of my Grandmother, Eva Margaret Overson Tanner.

I went to the Colorize your heritage website and uploaded this photo and in about 10 seconds (I have a very fast internet connection) I was able to download the following:

I can now see where the "red" hair in our family came from. This photo now appears to be overexposed which was not so evident in the original black and white (monochrome) version. I pulled the photo into Adobe Lightroom and made so additional edits.

It wouldn't take me much more time to enhance the photo even more. However, I can't imagine how long it would take me to colorized the black and white version, assuming I could figure out how to do that.

Here is another photo that shows a group of people from the Overson family. This photo is from a glass plate negative that I digitized. My Grandmother, Eva Margaret Overson Tanner is standing in the middle of the right side group. She is a lot younger than she is in the photo above.

Now, let's look at the photo after sending through the MyHeritage In Color™process.

Starting back in the mid-1800s, shortly after the invention of photography, colorizing was an extremely slow and tedious process. Here is an example of a hand-coloured daguerreotype by J. Garnier, c. 1850.

By J. Garnier (active ca. 1840s - 1860s)

Interestingly, the skin tones and colors are almost identical to the ones generated by the MyHeritage In Color™process.

What I see in the colorized versions of my own photographs is a lot more detail. Not that the detail is not there in the black and white versions, but the color adds depth and definement to the photos. Here is another example from my own archive of photos. First with the black and white.

Now the colorized version:

I can imagine that there are thousands of people trying to colorize hundreds of people today. I have noticed that some of the links do not work immediately. I suggest waiting until the initial rush wears off. However, as you can see, I was able to colorize these photos.

More new developments on The Family History Guide, just in time for RootsTech 2020

The Family History Guide Overview

With the upcoming RootsTech 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah, there has been a push at The Family History Guide to get ready for the big show. I recently posted about the updated home page and so the Overview Video had to also be updated. Many changes on the website result in cascading changes to all of the promotional material produced by the volunteers who maintain and update all this valuable genealogical training and research information. Another major development in the website is The Family History Guide Association Marketplace.

https://the-family-history-guide-association.myshopify.com/

The Family History Guide website is sponsored by The Family History Guide Association a qualified 501(c)(3) corporation and donations are tax-deductible in the United States. This also means that The Family History Guide Association is a non-profit corporation. One way a non-profit organization can make enough money to keep operating and to promote its objectives is to have a marketplace. During the past few months, one of our volunteers has single-handedly put together our marketplace. It’s important to know that the Marketplace is a separate website from The Family History Guide. You won’t see ads in The Family History Guide for the Marketplace. There are two links to get you from the main website to the Marketplace: one is near the bottom of the Home page, and the other is in the Misc. menu (right side of the top menu). We want to keep The Family History Guide free and ad-free.

Of course, we will continue to welcome donations. See Donate to The Family History Guide. 

We will be at RootsTech 2020 is just a few days. Look for us there.

Stymied by the Immigrant: Part One

Immigrant children, Ellis Island, New York.

Whatever their motivation, the two American continents have been the object of immigrants for tens of thousands of years. As genealogists, of course, we focus only on the last four hundred years or so but the process of immigration and the reception the immigrants received when they arrived affects the ancestry of every person living in North or South America today. It is inevitable that the first immigrants in any part of the land claimed ownership and resented and opposed the arrival of any subsequent infusions.  This almost automatic opposition is so territorial that it is common today for smaller communities to oppose almost any expansion by an increased surrounding population. See for example, "Herriman City Council Members Oppose Proposed Olympia Hills Development at County Public Hearing."

Huge cultural, economic, social, and political forces divide the present population of the Americas that originated from the motivation or lack of motivation for coming to the Americas of their immigrant ancestors. Included with this automatic stratification by mode and motivation for immigration is the additional acquisition of entitlement acquired by those who came voluntarily and with extensive economic resources. For example, opposition to further immigration began almost immediately in the first European colonies primarily because of the nationalist sentiment of the colonists who resented the arrival of immigrants from countries or areas viewed as traditional enemies or undesirables. So, Engish colonists automatically resented and opposed colonists from Ireland or Germany and the so-called native inhabitants, who were only more established immigrants of the Americas, had a mixed reception for the first Europeans.

As genealogists, we tend to look at our own immigrants as somehow isolated from the general population of immigrants that were either in the Americas already or came at about the same time with the same motivation. For example, the Irish immigrants who came in the early to mid-1800s almost all came with the same motivation: starvation in their native Ireland and their arrival in the United States was almost uniformly opposed in some cases with violence.

When we understand and appreciate the challenges and difficulties of each immigrant, we can also begin to understand why records containing information about their place of origin may be difficult or impossible to find. Usually, the existence or absence of information about the origin of the immigrant depends on the immigrant's economic status. Subsequently, you can usually find your rich ancestor immigrants and cannot find your poor ones and since the poor vastly outnumbered the rich, finding and identifying the origin of our collective ancestors is major obstacle to extending family lines. Additionally, once the place of origin is identified, there may be additional challenges in discovering and accessing the records in the homeland.

In this series, I will be discussing some of the specific issues that confront genealogists in determining the origin of immigrants. Meanwhile, I suggest you may want to start learning about the immigration research challenges by watching this recent video from Joseph B. Everett, MLS, AG from the Brigham Young University Family History Library YouTube Channel. 

Researching Immigrants to the United States - Joe Everett

You may also want to investigate the many other videos on the BYU YouTube Channel that talk about immigration.

Selected Resources for Black History and Black History Month

https://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/

In conjunction with Black History Month here in the United States, I thought it might be interesting to list a number of resources for researching African American History and particularly Family History. I hope you find this list useful and interesting. By the way, many of the websites listed have links to even more resources.

Websites

• African American History Month -- The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
• Smithsonian Black History Images 
• National Park Service -- African American Heritage -- Places of Struggle, Community and Triumph
• National Archives -- African American History Portal -- Includes Video Resources, Blogs, Featured Documents and Online Exhibits, Education Resources, and Other Resources
• National Endowment for the Humanities -- African American History and Culture in the United States --Our Teacher's Guide offers a collection of lessons and resources for K-12 social studies, literature, and arts classrooms that center around the achievements, perspectives, and experiences of African Americans across U.S. history.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum -- Black History Month
• History.com -- Black History Month
• Wikipedia -- Black History Month
• Biography.com -- Black History
• The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH®) -- Origins of Black History Month
• Library of Congress -- African American History Month
• Time.com -- This Is How February Became Black History Month
• CNN.com -- Meet the man who created Black History Month
• Census.gov -- National African-American (Black) History Month: February 2020 
• ReadingRockets.org -- Black History Month
• Google.com -- In honor of Black History Month
• ADL.org -- Black History Month
• National Museum of African American History and Culture -- Celebrating Black History Month
• Old Dominion University -- Black History Month
• National Education Association -- Black History Month Lessons & Resources, Grades K-5
• American Bar Association -- Celebrating Black History Month -- Since 1976, every U.S. President has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. In 2019, the ABA is celebrating the work of Black/African-American legal trailblazers. 
• Oxford African American Studies Center -- Resources
• FamilySearch.org -- All about Black History Month
• Library of Congress -- African American Family Histories and Related Works in the Library of Congress 
• FamilySearch.org -- Tracing Your African-American Genealogy
• The Family History Guide -- African American Genealogy
• American Ancestors -- African American Genealogy
• FamilySearch Wiki -- African American Genealogy

Books

African American Heritage Committee (Ky.), Lucille Brooks, and Kentucky Heritage Council. African American Heritage of Simpson County, Kentucky, 2001.

Allen, James E. Black History; Past and Present. New York: Exposition Press, 1971.

Angelou, Maya, Michael Bacon, Bliss Broyard, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Henry Louis Gates, Peter Gomes, et al. African American lives 2. Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 2008. http://www.aspresolver.com/aspresolver.asp?PBSV;2361399.

Bennett, Lerone. Great Moments in Black History: Wade in the Water. Chicago: Johnson Pub. Co., 2000.

Birmingham African-American Genealogy Study Group. “Black Genealogy.” Black Genealogy, 2000.

Black, Edward Davis, and Olive Clarise Sanders Cloud. The Grandsa Black Genealogy. Atlanta, Ga.: E.D. Black, 1984.

Black History. New York, N.Y.: Copublished by the Institute for Research in History and the Haworth Press, 1983.

Black History. Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified, 1990.

Black History Month Activity and Enrichment Handbook: An Easy-to-Use Collection of Ideas, Activities & Games Designed to Help Explore African-American History and Culture. Orange, NJ: Just Us Books, 1990.

Blockson, Charles L. Black Genealogy. Black Classic Pr, 1992.

Blockson, Charles L, and Ron Fry. Black genealogy., 1977.

Canedy, Dana, Darcy Eveleigh, Damien Cave, and Rachel L Swarns. Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archives, 2017.

Carter, Polly, and J. Brian Pinkney. Harriet Tubman and Black History Month. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Press, 1990.

Cofer, Loris D. Black Genealogy. Glennville, Ga.: Glennville Print. & Office Supply, 1991.

Conyers, James L. African American Consciousness: Past and Present. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2012. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10524775.

Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo. The Early Black History Movement, Carter G. Woodson, and Lorenzo Johnston Greene. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Dennis, Denise, and Susan Willmarth. Black History for Beginners. Danbury, CT: For Beginners, 2007.

Dillard, J. L. Black Names, 1976. http://www.degruyter.com/search?f_0=isbnissn&q_0=9783110815337&searchTitles=true.

Drimmer, Melvin. Black History: A Reappraisal. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1969.

Drotning, Phillip T, and A guide to Negro history in America. An American Traveler’s Guide to Black History. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970.

Eakle, Arlene H, and Johni Cerny. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry Publishing Company, 1984.

Gates, Henry Louis, and J. A Rogers. 100 Amazing Facts about the Negro, 2017.

Gill, Joel Christian, and Regina N Bradley. More Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, 2018.

———. Strange Fruit. More Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History Volume II Volume II, 2018.

Greene, Lorenzo J, and Arvarh E Strickland. Working with Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History: A Diary, 1928-1930. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Hait, Michael. African American Genealogy Research. Place of publication not identified: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2011.

Harrison, Vashti, and Kwesi Johnson. Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History, 2019.

Hazen, Walter A, and Margo Burian. Black History. Fort Atkinson, WI.: Edupress, 2007.

Helsley, Alexia Jones, South Carolina, and Department of Archives and History. South Carolina’s African American Confederate Pensioners, 1923-1925. Columbia, S.C.: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1998.

Henry, Mike. Black History: More than Just a Month, 2013.

Hinton, Elizabeth Kai, and Manning Marable. The New Black History: Revisiting the Second Reconstruction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. Heroes of Black History: Biographies of Four Great Americans, 2017.

Jackson, Dave, and Neta Jackson. Heroes in Black History: True Stories from the Lives of Christian Heroes. Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 2008.

Jackson, Tricia Williams. Women in Black History: Stories of Courage, Faith, and Resilience, 2016.

Kallen, Stuart A. Black History. Place of publication not identified: Abdo Group, 2001.

Lester, Julius. Long Journey Home: Stories from Black History. New York: Puffin Books, 1998.

Lotz, Rainer E, Ian Pegg, and Jagdish S Gundara. Under the Imperial Carpet: Essays in Black History, 1780-1950, 1986.

Lusane, Clarence. The Black History of the White House. San Francisco, Calif.: City Lights Books, 2011.

Lyndon, Dan. Black History. London: Franklin Watts, 2010.

Madison, Wisconsin African American Genealogy Group. Nine African American Women: Their Memories and Reflections, 2016.

Marable, Manning. Living Black History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America’s Racial Future. New York: Basic Civitas, 2011.

McKissack, Pat, and Fredrick McKissack. Carter G. Woodson: The Father of Black History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2002.

Mohamud, Abdul, and Robin Whitburn. Doing Justice to History: Transforming Black History in Secondary Schools, 2016.

National Information Center for Educational Media. Index to Black History & Studies (Multimedia). Los Angeles: National Information Center for Educational Media, University of Southern California, 1973.

Price, H. H, and Gerald E Talbot. Maine’s Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People. Gardiner, Me.: Tilbury House, 2006.

Rainville, Lynn. Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia, 2014.

Rose, James M, and Alice Eichholz. Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African-American Genealogy. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co., 2005.

Ross, Leon T, and Kenneth A Mimms. African American Almanac: Day-by-Day Black History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006.

Schell, Karen D, Cobblestone, and Faces. Black History. Farmingdale, N.Y.: Cobblestone Pub., 1992.

Schubert, Barbara. Black History. San Jose, Calif.: Reflections and Images, 1977.

Sewell George A. Mississippi Black History Makers. Place of publication not identified: Univ Press Of, 1984.

———. Mississippi Black History Makers. Place of publication not identified: Univ Press Of, 1984.

Shetterly, Margot Lee. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, 2016.

Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney, W. Paul Coates, Thomas C Battle, and Black Bibliophiles and Collectors Symposium, eds. Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1990.

Smith, Charles R, Shane Evans, Dion Graham, William Jackson, and LLC Findaway World. 28 Days: Moments in Black History That Changed the World, 2019.

Stuart, Karlton. Black History & Achievement in America: An Overview of the Black Struggle, Its Heroes and Heroines. Place of publication not identified: Karlt Books, 1982.

Thackery, David T. Finding Your African American Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide, 2000.

The “Old Northwest” genealogical quarterly. Black Genealogy. Columbus, OH: The Author, 1909.

Twitty, Michael. The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African American Culinary History in the Old South, 2018.

United States, Health Care Financing Administration, and Equal Opportunity Office. Black History Month. Washington, D.C.? Health Care Financing Administration, Equal Opportunity Office, 1989.

Williams, John A, and Charles F Harris. Amistad: [Writings on Black History and Culture]. 1. 1. New York, 1970.

Wright, W. D. Black History and Black Identity: A Call for a New Historiography. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002.

Wright, William D. Critical Reflections on Black History. Westport, CT [etc.: Praeger, 2002.

There is a whole lot more information than I could possibly list but let me end up with these links to the Freedman Records.

• National Archives -- African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau
• National Museum of African American History and Culture -- The Freedmen's Bureau Records
• The Freedmen's Bureau Online -- This website has a number of links to other records
• Digital Public Library of America -- The Freedmen's Bureau
• FamilySearch.org -- United States Freedmen's Bureau, Records of Freedmen, 1865-1872