How Can Local History Help Me with Genealogy?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A library and an archive carry different resources. Most people who have researched for some time have accessed the holdings at the local archives, but resources in the local history section of the local library have been widely overlooked.

Researching library holdings

If you have never thought to research the holdings in the library in your ancestor's hometown, you may be in for a surprise. It is possible for you to glean much more than names and dates from the resources in a local library.

If you do not live close enough to the library, search their catalog and digital collections online. E-mail them to find out the resources they have in their local history department that may identify your ancestor.

Accessing resources

Local history librarians have begun to receive many requests for help with genealogy research. Be courteous of their time, and be generous with paying requested fees. You may find that it would be worth your while to pay to have the same access to resources as a resident especially if resources are not accessible online.

Create a timeline of your ancestor's life for easy reference, and search the resources suggested here in search of your ancestor.

What school did your ancestor attend?

You may be interested in researching the school records of your ancestor. The local library may have year books or be able to help you identify the schools that existed that your ancestor may have attended.

Contact the school archives for a transcript. Be sure to research the names of extinct primary and secondary schools and where the record would be held. Researching the schools your family attended may reveal ancestors who helped to provide land or other resources to establish the school.

Which churches did your family attend?

Researching the churches in your family may prove to be very significant if you are able to trace records back before the time births and marriages were recorded on civil registers.

You may discover that the church also has an adjacent cemetery where other family members are buried. You will need to identify the person in charge of the archived records. Set an appointment to view these records. Some record keepers are church secretaries who keep records in their homes while some can provide access to the records on site.

What can an old newspaper tell you?

Many researchers have discovered how to access obituaries to document ancestors. In cases where you cannot locate a death certificate, the obituary is the next best resource.

Historic newspapers can help you in many other ways not yet fully understood. Take time out to research the names of the local newspapers that were published during your ancestor's life. Some of them may have stopped publishing long ago. Many are on microfilm or online.

Read through the issues that may mention your ancestor. Older newspapers were much different long ago. They give many more details, and more social activities were shared.

Some of the types of articles include:

• a soldier returning home
• a former resident coming home for a visit
• social gatherings (who attended and what they were wearing)

Check the vertical file

Often the vertical file in the library goes unnoticed. It may have never been digitized. This is the place where you can find loose clippings of newspaper articles, programs, photos, or letters filed by topic or alphabetically by surname.

If the local history department of the local library has a vertical file, you might discover leads to more information that you may have never stumbled upon otherwise.

Look for information about businesses, churches, schools, or organizations that your ancestor would have been affiliated with.

Search for history books on the local area

Many local history books in the library give biographical information about local residents. It is fascinating to learn more about the locality where your ancestor lived. It is important to understand the formation of counties and towns and how those changes effected the local residents.

Most of the time this information can help you keep your bearing straight as you try to make sense of where to look for records during certain time periods.

Records were generated according to locality. If you are searching for resources for a locality, a great place to start would be at the Research Wiki. It will help you link to genealogical records online and in local repositories.

What can you learn from city directories?

If your ancestor lived within a city, he or she may be listed in the old city directories. City directories are great because they help to account for family members in between census years. Search each consecutive year to see if you can find your family. You may discover much more such as:

• ancestor's occupation
• other members of the family group
• address changes

If you discover the occupation of an ancestor, search the newspapers and other resources for mentions of the company. If your ancestor was a clergy member or teacher and you discover it in the city directory, you can then search out possible churches or schools. Many city directories are being made available online.

Periodicals may hold biographical data

Many libraries carry volumes of genealogical periodicals where the history of local residents are published. Most have been indexed making it easier to tell which volume contains information about your ancestor.

These resources are helpful even if they do not contain your ancestor because they are sourced and will reveal historical resources that you may have not checked.

The first volume of the South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research was published in 1973. Each volume has a wealth of information, and it is available in many public libraries in South Carolina. Take a look at the list of Volumes I through XL to see an example of what a genealogical periodical can contain.

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Six Clues Church Souvenir Booklets Give for Genealogy Research

Church souvenir booklets are published to commemorate church anniversaries (See these examples) . If you have no idea which churches your family attended in an area, research the churches that they would have lived closest to. Ask about upcoming events such as homecomings which are sure to attract many people from the community as well as guests from across the country.

Find out if any special publications will be made available such as anniversary or souvenir booklets. These publications can hold important clues for you:

1. Church history

Sometimes the only oral history that survives about a church’s history can be found in the souvenir booklet. Your ancestors may have

• lived in an area during the time a church was established
• donated funds to make improvements
• donated property

You may find them mentioned in the church history. Even if they are not mentioned, you may discover the names of other individuals who can tell you more.

2. Record of church officers

Was it possible that your ancestor or family member served as a trustee or in another office? The souvenir booklet may give you clues. Also, be sure to ask if other historical information exists that was not included. Find out where church records are kept. In some cases, records are kept by the church secretary in her home, or you may find it in the local university’s manuscript division.

3. Membership

Many souvenir booklets give an account of early church membership. Descendants of these members pay to submit photographs of the living descendants of early members, photographs of ancestors who faithfully attended, or tributes to family members who have passed away.

4. History of the community

The newly freed enslaved persons of White Lick Community worshiped together long before they had St. Peter AME in Abbeville, South Carolina. They met under a “Brush Harbor” (trees) on the land of Samuel Carter according to the history recorded in the 108th year of the anniversary of St. Peter AME.

The name of the church was first called Cartersville after Mr. Carter who gave them land for a church and a cemetery. The first cornerstone was laid in 1892, but the church was not built until 1904. The history of White Lick community, now called Sharon Community, included in the 1995 St Peter AME Church souvenir booklet could possibly be useful for descendants of those formerly enslaved who are researching their ancestors.

5. Cemeteries

In many cases, these older churches also have an adjacent cemetery or a cemetery nearby. You should check to see if you recognize any of the names on headstones. Find out if records exist of the people who were buried in the cemetery because some people interred there may not have a marker.

6. Local churches

Check the souvenir booklet to see which local churches took out ads to offer well wishes. Each church in an area was part of the community, and family members might have belonged to one of them. They would celebrate events, worship together, and support each other even though their names were not on the same rolls.

Research the other churches that you learn about from the souvenir booklet. Be sure to attend some of their events were you may meet people who remember your ancestor or other family members. It would be very helpful to others researching churches if older souvenir booklets were donated to the local library making it easier for them to discover more about ancestors and the history of the church they attended.

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Part 2: Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Fairview Cemetery, 2014

In Part 1: Finding burials for formerly enslaved people, you learned how to use the 1870 Census, death certificates and obituaries to discover the final resting place of emancipated ancestors and their descendants. The resources included below have also proved very helpful in determining burial sites.

Historic cemeteries

As you go through locating death certificates for family members who lived after the dawn of freedom, you will become familiar with the earliest burial places used by African Americans. Hopefully, you will put forth the extra effort to visit these cemeteries to determine if they are cared for and if the surviving graves have been documented. Do not expect to see all modern headstones in these early burial places. Some ancestors may only have a blank field stone to mark where they were buried. In some cases, you will only see depressions in the ground where graves have sunk deep.

It can be disheartening to find overgrown cemeteries or desecrated graves. Any effort you put forth to identify undocumented graves will be greatly appreciated by living descendants who are tracing their family history. Headstones crumble and deteriorate. If no record of burials exist in the local library or on Find A Grave, there is a risk that whatever still survives will not be available in the future.

If you could not find a death certificate for your ancestor's burial, check the following places:

• Historic cemeteries – It is not uncommon to find burial sites (often unkempt) of formerly enslaved people or their descendants laid to rest in Confederate cemeteries or cemeteries which were part of now extinct communities.

• The property where your ancestor lived during enslavement – Many plantations had a burial site for deceased people who were enslaved, and they used this burial site to lay descendants to rest long after freedom came.

• Church site of the former owner – If the former owner had a cemetery on the church site, check the grounds for burials of African Americans.

• Early church site of emancipated ancestor – Many African American communities put their money together to purchase land for churches and a burial site of their own if they were not allowed to be buried in the traditional places they used prior to Emancipation.

• Ancestor's land – Often the land acquired by the freedmen became a early burial spot for family members

• Pauper cemetery – Donated land or land designated to be used as a burial place for the less fortunate became the burial spot for African Americans who were destitute.

• State hospital cemetery – African Americans confined to state or mental hospitals can be found to be buried in the cemetery on the grounds.

• State prison – African Americans who died while incarcerated were often buried in the cemeteries owned by the state prison.

• Private land – Many early lands owned by African Americans after enslavement were lost. Trace the deeds to these properties to determine the current owners. If there is a burial spot or cemetery on private land, this will require permission of the current owner to gain access.

Land records

If you have narrowed down the community where your ancestor lived until death, check to see if the local government has a local Geographic Information System (GIS). Search for the property using the current owner's name or the parcel identification number. You should be able to locate the deed and the plat map for the property online. You might also find a record of the previous owners and land surveys. Sometimes cemeteries are included in the property surveys. This has been one very successful way of identifying forgotten and undocumented cemeteries.

Try looking up the name, Joe Wah, on the Greenwood GIS. You will see a parcel for a cemetery connected to Joe Wah. It is Fairview Cemetery (Parcel number: 6856-442-485) which not too long ago was almost totally undocumented. In the process of documenting Fairview Cemetery, it was discovered that many people interred there had lived through being enslaved.

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