Attempting to Identify the Slave Owner in African American Research

African Slave Chains

For African American research, identifying slaveowners of your respective ancestors can at times be very challenging.  After you've found your African-American ancestor in the 1870 census, you can look for clues that may reveal a possible slaveowner of your family.  Although not always, but sometimes just by identifying a white neighbor of your ancestors in the 1870 census could reveal a potential slaveowner, especially if that white neighbor lived close to your ancestor.

Once you've identified a possible slaveowner, you can then look for the slaveowner in the 1860 census of the county that your ancestors lived in.  Additionally, you can began to search for records that a particular slaveowner had that may reveal information on any slaves that they owned such as wills and deeds.

One good place to check for these records would be the county clerk's office of the county that your ancestor(s) resided in.  And while for some African-Americans, the search may not be as promising depending on the county in which your ancestor lived and available records, for others, the search may yield some very promising results!