Part 3: Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Ellis McClure reading inscription at Fairview Cemetery, 2014

This is the last of a three part series highlighting resources that can help you identify the burial site for Emancipated ancestors and their children. In Part 2: Finding burials for formerly enslaved people, you learned about different types of historic cemeteries and how to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to find cemeteries using property records. Below you will learn about three more resources to discover burial sites.

Local history

Many cemeteries that no longer exist have been documented, and cemetery books are found among the local history and genealogy collections of the public library. Check out the library catalog of the library located in the area where your ancestor lived. County or parish cemetery books have indexes containing cemetery names or surnames of individuals buried in a cemetery. Librarians are also good resources for locating cemeteries or the history of families from a particular area.

Other places to check to learn more about local history are:

1. Local historical society
2. Local genealogical society
3. Local archives

The book, "Greenwood County Sketches," a local history book by Margaret Watson, proved to be quite helpful in learning about early cemeteries in Abbeville and Greenwood Counties, SC. It provides the histories of local families, early churches, and cemetery information. One early family mentioned descended from John Partlow. John Partlow was a large plantation owner and a devout Universalist. At the time he and his family attended worship services in Mount Moriah Baptist Church.

When John Partlow died, his family was not allowed to hold his funeral service at Mount Moriah because Universalists believed all people would be saved. His sons had a new church built in four weeks in 1844 and sent for a minister to deliver his eulogy. The name of this new church was Save All as given by Thomas Coleman Lipscomb who purchased the property when the Universalists eventually left the area. Coleman sold the property which became a burial ground for people of color from the mid 1800's to about 1966 according to surviving cemetery markers.

Probate records

Many times the final expenses for burying a loved one were paid from the proceeds of the estate. Chances are that you may find records showing payments for a plot, funeral home, clothing, or transportation. If the funeral home is mentioned, find out how to access those records to see if the burial site is mentioned. If the funeral home is no longer in business, ask funeral home directors who are currently in business to see if they know who is storing the records from the older funeral home. Also check the local library, historical society, or genealogical society.

Newspapers

A very productive way to learn about burial sites is to search old newspapers. Create a timeline of newspapers in a locality while accounting for boundary changes. Search for the most recent obituaries in the most recent editions of the newspapers. Use the U.S. Newspaper Directory at Chronicling America, 1690 to Present to discover all the various titles of newspapers to search in a given area.

As you move back in time, make note of the earlier cemeteries that are named. Figure out what burial sites people traditionally used for early burials. Search the following to glean what you can from the newspaper:

• obituaries for specific people to identify burial sites
• funeral homes for where they buried people
• early probate notices that may lead to maps and estate records
• early real estate sales transactions where cemeteries might have been
• articles naming early churches that may have had adjoining cemeteries

Read Full Story...

30. My take on uncovering Reconstruction Era resources

African American History Monument at The State House, Columbia
by Robin Foster

I was so happy to be able to attend Tony Burrough's seminar his past Sunday at the Robert Mills Courthouse in Camden.  I have his book, Black Roots,  and I have used it faithfully for almost a decade.  It will never become obsolete.


I have been researching for over 20 years, and I still learned so much.  The greatest thing that I remember he said was, "If you want to locate information about a slave ancestor, research Reconstruction records."








Well, I have only skimmed the surface when it comes to Reconstruction Era records.  A light bulb somehow went on, and now I am on a mission to find all I can.  I am having a great deal of success. It is as if the resources have just been waiting for me.  I am learning so much about this period in our history that I did not know.


A study of Reconstruction can be quite challenging because there are so MANY contradictions and opposing viewpoints.  Freedmen who struggled to exercise and keep their new found freedoms were seen as shiftless, criminals, and less than equal.  You must be able to keep the proper perspective as you trudge through these records.  They are useful to those who have slave owner as well as slave ancestry.


I can certainly see why anyone would want to avoid having to use them in genealogical research, but doing so may result in never finding that link back to slavery (see Reconstruction Era records are neglected genealogical resources).  I have been very successful in locating a few of my ancestors so far.


Even though I have struggled a little this week and had to do some major soul searching, I feel a significant change as come over me.  I understand so much more about the complexities of being African American.  I understand so much more the purpose for me being taught to have integrity and to "NEVER use the word, can't." when I was growing up.


I am understanding more about the responsibility I have to share these perspectives and the resources that can help others find documentation.  Yes, we are working to find evidence to document our ancestry, but in the process we are really discovering ourselves.  Reconstruction was in many respects harsher than slavery.


Freedmen had no monetary value to former slave owners and were even more expendable.  How did they do it?  What were they made of?  I hope I will understand better as I go along.  I will continue to share my feelings here, but I will share resources and how you can access them in a more formal way here:  Columbia Ethnic Community Examiner.  I have written 3 articles this week so far.    Click the "subscribe" button at the top of any of the articles so you do not miss any resources.

Read Full Story...