Ancestry Offers Free Access to African American Research Center

Ancestry has announced a new African American Research Center, a collection of historical records providing information on African Americans. For the month of February, Black History Month, Ancestry is making access to the collection free. It's available at http://www.ancestry.com/aahistory.

There are several different sets of records here, including Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 (a bank in New York where soldiers and former slaves could invest their money), Slave Schedules, 1850 & 1860 (slaves were counted separately during the 1850 and 1860 censuses), US Federal Census, 1870 (first US Federal census to list African Americans by name), Civil War Service Records, Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820, and Slave Narratives.

Registration is required but once that's done you can access all the resources from the URL mentioned in the first paragraph. That page also contains links to research tips for African American research, a step-by-step guide to African American research, and pointers to additional articles and information.

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