[Verginius Rufus]

The first US census to list people individually was the 1850 census, but it gives names only of free persons (including "free persons of color")...the 1850 and 1860 censuses have one line for each slave but just give data such as age and sex, not the names, which makes them almost useless for genealogical research. So for African-American genealogy the first useful census is 1870 (and that was one when apparently a lot of people were missed). It's understandable that a researcher could hit a brick wall around 1830 trying to trace black ancestors.

It's not a whole lot better with some white families--it can be hard to trace back beyond the ones listed as adults in 1850. Of course with whites you often can find marriage records and land records, whereas slaves' marriages were not legally recognized so were not recorded in the county courthouse, and slaves owned no land.

[ansel12]

"The first US census to list people individually was the 1850 census, but it gives names only of free persons (including "free persons of color")...the 1850 and 1860 censuses have one line for each slave but just give data such as age and sex, not the names, which makes them almost useless for genealogical research."


I have a original copy of the 1850 census book, but it is packed away at this moment.

[CatoRenasci]

It's perfectly understandable that blacks and latinos would want to trace their geneology and figure out where they came from - so do many others. Census records have their limitations for all Americans, however. As you point out it's necessary to rely on birth, marriage and death records in many cases. Also useful are pension rolls for veterans of the Revolution and War of 1812; I don't think there are equivalents before the Revolution, although their might be British pension rolls for veterans of the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). In Europe, some families (such as mine) had private copies of records that are otherwise unavailable, and beyond that one must rely on church records, and the records of the various cities, duchies, principalities, and kingdoms. The various national (whether they have legal status or not) heraldic institutions can also be helpful.

[AnAmericanMother]

It's better to check property tax records in the county courthouse. The census is, as you note, pretty useless for the slave population. But the property tax returns have a surprising amount of detail. Another source is correspondence, which you will usually find preserved at the local university. It's time-consuming but if you have a name and location to start with, it can be very productive.

(I found this out doing research on my thesis. Took me awhile to figure it out, but I got some good leads from local genealogists in the counties I was studying.)

[Myrddin]

I traveled to Wales to sift the microfilm and paper records at the National Library in Aberystwyth. The records are pretty good back to about 1754. Prior to that time the Welsh employed a patronymic naming method that required the name of the house and 4 generations of male ancestry. Getting that stuff requires crawling through parish registers written in Welsh and making physical visits to cemeteries to read data off head stones. It's no piece of cake.