Why I value Black Genealogy

One thing I've done on ancestry.com is to list the names of slaves owned by family members in the story section of the individual on the site, so that people who have matches with my family can find them.

My family owned few slaves, but there are first names listed in an inventory for the probated will of a great, great grandfather. I also list the online source where the names can be found.

One of my husband's family owned more slaves and also died before 1865, so there's an inventory with a list of first names, sometimes a notation of couples and of mothers and children. I've listed all those in a story with the link.

A distant cousin of my husband's family gave an interview in which she listed all kinds of names and occupations of slaves on the family plantation as a child. Because the relationship to husband's family is sort of confusing, we just gave her a small separate family tree with the story attached and the names of her immediate ancestors who were the slave owners.
That's a good tip about the stories, since a story can be attached to the trees of two otherwise unrelated people, providing a link.
 
Amazing thread

A few years back I went to a family reunion hosted by and at a "Historically Black College" in Alabama
to recognize my relatives. I am white and have a relative that taught slaves to read, pre-civil war (they did own a few slaves, but not documented yet). This is when it was illegal to educate slaves.
After the war my relative was one of the three men started the first black technical school which became the first black college.

My cousin made a presentation about my relatives efforts to educate the slaves and displayed the table around which they were taught. I have had followup discussions with the cousins, other family and the school about who the slaves might have been and wonder where their descendants are now.
 
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