Black Family History: A guide to sources of information

Websites:

AfriGeneas: www.afrigeneas.com
A site devoted to African American genealogy, to researching African Ancestry in the Americas in particular and to genealogical research and resources in general.

BBC History Abolition of the Slave Trade:www.bbc.co.uk/abolition/
Includes references to individuals involved in the fight against the slave trade and information on people who have researched their own family history back to slavery. (e.g. Local author Victor Okrafo-Smart)

Every Generation: www.everygeneration.co.uk
An online resource for the Black community in the UK designed:“to facilitate the personal development and empowerment of young people and to bridge the gap with the older generation through history, family genealogy and heritage”.

Moving here: www.movinghere.org.uk
Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to Britain over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be. It offers free access to an online catalogue of versions of original material related to migration history from local, regional and national archives, libraries and museums.

Paul Crooks:
Website devoted to the story of Paul Crooks’ own experiences tracing his family from Africa to the Caribbean & Britain.

Slave Database of Mauritius:
Produced by the Nelson Mandela Centre for African Culture’s Family History Unit this is a database containing the names of all Mauritian slaves freed in 1835. It is part of an on-going project listing all people included on the Slave Registers held by the National Archives in London.

Books:

The following books on tracing black family history are available from libraries
Blockson, Charles L. & Fry, R. Black Genealogy  Black Classic, 1991. ISBN 0 933 121 539

Crooks, Paul Ancestors  Black Amber, 2002. ISBN 190196907X   Fictionalised account of a personal family history from Africa to Britain via the Caribbean.

Grannum, Guy Tracing your West Indian Ancestors  Public Record Office, 2002.  ISBN 1 903 365 384

Kershaw, Roger & Pearsall, Mark Immigrants and Aliens: a guide to sources on UK immigration and citizenship  Public Records Office, 2000. ISBN 1 873 162 944

Okrafo-Smart, Victor Okrafo-Smart family: over a Century in the lives of a liberated African family  Palm Tree, 2006  ISBN 0 955 47 2407   Local Nottinghamshire author.

Oxford Companion to Black British History
An online version of this major reference work can be accessed via the Nottingham City libraries website: www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/libraries. Follow the links to Electronic resources.www.oxfordreference.com/views/BOOK_SEARCH.html

Porter, S.D. (compiler). Jamaican records: a 2 part guide to genealogical and historical research using repositories in Jamaica and England  Stephen D. Porter Pubications, 1999. ISBN 0 953 635 600

General Family History

For general information and further help with researching, see the main Family History section of this website.