Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Fairview Cemetery, April 2014

It is very common these days for the descendants of ancestors who held enslaved people to have a desire to know what became of the emancipated people who were connected with their family. Descendants of people of color who were enslaved have great challenges as they seek to discover their history. Often, both groups are interested in locating the burial place of formerly enslaved people and their descendants, and this is a guide to resources that can reveal the final resting place.

1870 Census

First, begin by locating the emancipated person on the 1870 Census. Search the households nearby to determine if a person who could have been the former owner (or descendants of the owner) is living nearby. Henry Sims, his wife Scillar and their children appear on the 1870 Census in Fishdam, Union, South Carolina. It was common knowledge among the descendants of Martha (daughter of Henry and Scillar) that their former owner was James Anderson Tucker. Martha's mother was his cook.

Right next door to Henry on the 1870 Census is J. A. Tucker and his wife Anna. You will not always find the emancipated person using the same surname as the person who enslaved him, but sometimes you will. The reason that you want to locate the former owner and the formerly enslaved person on the 1870 Census is because this will help you locate possible burial sites used before and after emancipation. Burial sites for formerly enslaved people could be found on university campuses, pauper cemeteries, church cemeteries, city cemeteries, owner's land, land deeded to the newly freed people.

Death certificates

You may not be accustomed to thinking about looking for a death certificate for an emancipated person or their children, but many lived well past the time death certificates were first recorded. If you are fortunate, you will be able to locate a death certificate. Death certificates often mention the place of burial. You may not recognize the place mentioned. If this is the case, you will need to research historical cemeteries, local history, local maps, or deeds to discover more about the burial site and its location.

After researching all the death certificates in Greenwood County from 1915 to 1962, it was discovered that African Americans were buried but not documented in Tabernacle Cemetery. One of the death certificates were for Mack Goggins who was born about 1881. Mack's death certificate clearly states that he was buried in Tabernacle.

This discovery led to his father, Columbus Goggins, who was the oldest living member of St. Paul AME Church before his death. Columbus, his wife, and several children are buried in Tabernacle Cemetery. Columbus was born about 1845, and he has a marker at Tabernacle. It is fortunate there is a marker for Columbus because no death certificate has been located. This was the first clue this researcher had that led to several more burials of formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

If you discover the burial ground of formerly enslaved people, do not assume it has been fully documented. Search the cemetery, obituaries, and death certificates to learn more. Be sure to share what you learn with the local library.

Obituaries

African Americans should search the local newspaper for obituaries for emancipated ancestors. Many believe that they will not find an ancestor mentioned because of the challenges faced in the early and mid 1900's. This line of reasoning did not hold true for scores of obituaries found in the Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) from 1898 and beyond which helped to document hundreds of burials in Fairview Cemetery. Not many headstones remain in Fairview, so without the discovery of obituaries and death certificates many emancipated ancestors and their children would have been forever forgotten. See A Surprise Waiting Deep in Fairview. 

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Hunting for Treasures at the Library

Joliet Public Library, Robin Foster 22 April 2016 © 

One of the greatest divides in genealogy is the distance between us and the resources that a library has which cannot be found online. Are they the first go-to items we gravitate to when documenting our ancestors? No. When we get desperate for records, their treasures are worth the time and travel to access them. I visited a library in the town where I grew up, Joliet. I hope this makes you curious about the library where your ancestor grew up.

History I wish I had in school

There is a local history section full of resources on the second floor that I never bothered to approach out of all the time I spent here growing up. With limited time now, I am anxious to document myself and the previous generation using these unique records. Can anyone else relate?

I made a full sweep of everything first taking photos, and then I went back to determine record content and time period.  In this process, I figure someone else that I am connected to may somehow also have Joliet roots.

What of education? The topic bewilders me especially since my parents paid for me to go to private schools. If we do not teach the history of the area in which we live and how we are connected to it, how can we inspire true leaders, public servants, productive communities? Below are resources right in the Joliet Public Library that document a history that was never even mentioned throughout all the years I spent in school here.

Always check the library website to learn what local history and genealogy resources they have, however, remember that other resources may be available on site that are not mentioned online. If you have items that may be of interest to other patrons, you should make a donation to the Friends of the library to be added to the local resources.

Funeral programs

                                                       Robin Foster, April 2016 ©

The first items that drew my attention were these colorful binders. Can you imagine 19 volumes of funeral programs documenting African American people who died in the Joliet area and the history that each program holds? Funeral programs often give rich biographical details, and they also mention parents and other members of the person's family group. They are a great starting point to discovering historical documentation.

Funeral Service Brochures for African Americans of Joliet and Lockport, Illinois, Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

 Obituary index

Obituary index in binders, Robin Foster, 22 April

2016 

The library is working to make an obituary index searchable online. So far, the online index of obituaries indexed in the Joliet Herald News covers 1979-2010. They also have a printed obituary index in binders.  Notice on the shelf they have a Joliet Daily News Obituary Index from 1909 to 1913.  If you use the index books onsite, you can look up the obituary on microfilm after you find it.

Yearbooks

People ask me all of the time how to go about finding photos of family members. We all want to be able to know what our ancestors looked like. One great place to check are the yearbooks at the local library. While I was there a brother and sister who looked to be high school age found there mother in a yearbook. It was fun to watch them. 

Yearbooks may exist for elementary school, high school, and college. I noticed the following school yearbooks at Joliet Public Library (some are extinct schools or schools that have been renamed):

Joliet Central High School

Joliet East High School

Joliet East Crown

Joliet West High School

Lewis College

Lewis University

Plainfield High School

Ridgewood Baptist Academy

                                               Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

                                            Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

                                              Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

                                                Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

City directories

City directories are great for finding the location of family members between census years. The Joliet Public Library has directories from as far back as 1881. You can also find the directory includes name of spouse, address, occupation, and business addresses if they own a business. 

I found my parents in the 1966 Joliet city directory.  My father, Robert Foster, was a mathematical statistician at a local ammunition procurement plant. My mom is also listed. Also included on this page is Theba Foster who was a realtor and good friend of the family but not related. 

Polk's Joliet (Will County, Illinois) City Directory 1966 Including: Crest Hill, Lockport Township, and Rockdale

Maps

The library has map and plat books for Will and surrounding counties. One of the earliest for Will County was published in 1862. I was able to locate the area I grew up in the Will County plat books:

Newspapers

                                                Robin Foster, 22 April 2016 © 

I did not know Joliet had so many newspapers. The current newspaper is the Joliet Herald News. The library has the Herald on microfilm from 1940 to 2015. Prior to April 1940, the local paper was the Joliet Evening Herald News. Several different papers extend back to 1846.  I will discuss them in a future post.

I have not yet been able to find an online newspaper database that has all the Joliet newspapers. If you know of one, please share. When newspapers are not digitized, you have to access them on microfilm, and that takes time. It is difficult on your eyes to work for more than a couple of hours researching newspapers on microfilm, but I have done it many times when that was all there was. 

Hopefully, these treasures will make you curious enough about what libraries may hold in the area where your ancestor lived. My next sweep through the local history department included pulling open every drawer and spying on local history on the shelf. Stay tuned for my next post!

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