Must Have Genealogy Books

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Permalink Reply by Alane Roundtree on July 17, 2009 at 10:18am

After all these years I still find Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills is indispensable. It's always within easy each.

Somerset Homecoming by Dororthy Spruill Redford remains an inspirational favorite, as well as Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery by Melvin J. Collier.

Other inspirational works on my shelves:

Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color, Anita L. Wills
Shared History, Felicia Furman
Spirit Dive: An African American Journey to Uncover a Sunken Slave Ship's Past, Michael H. Cottman
Inheriting the Trade, Thomas Norman DeWolf
The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed
Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery, Charles Johnson & Patricia Smith

Dog-earred works of reference for my research:

James Henry Hammond and the Old South, Drew Gilpin Faust
The Hammonds of Redcliffe, Carol Bleser
Secret and Sacred, Carol Bleser
Aiken County: The Only South Carolina County Founded During Reconstruction, Isabel Vandervelde
Slave Records in the Manuscript Collection of the South Carolina Historical Society: A Catalog, Carey Lucas Nikonchuk

and many more...

Permalink Reply by msualumni on July 19, 2009 at 8:08pm

My all time favorites have all been mentioned already:

Somerset Homecoming---inspiration and then some
Finding a Place Called Home--wonderfully instructive
Black Roots--basics and then some
Discovering Your African-American Ancestors--the case studies are simply bananas;)

A few others I've enjoyed:
Bullwhip Days
Ar'nt I a Woman: Female Slaves in the Plantation South
We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the 19th Century
Capitalism and Slavery
Many Thousands Gone
The Sweet Hell Inside (by Edward Ball)
Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the 19th Century
Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland

Permalink Reply by msualumni on July 19, 2009 at 8:33pm

Oh I forgot 2 new additions to my must-haves: "Google Your Family Tree" and "The Hemingses of Monticello".

Permalink Reply by Selma Stewart on July 20, 2009 at 1:57pm

Great topic Angela,

Along with many of the books mentioned by other posters...2 books that have been very important to me are:

1. The Black Laws of Virgina
Summary of Legislative Acts of VA concerning Negroes from Earliest Times to the Present by June Purcell Guild
Originally published in 1936 (it was reprinted in 1995).
Many of the documents we seek are based on the laws that were passed (either compliance, non compliance) as they refer to Enslaved individuals and Free Blacks. The book makes it quite clear the evolution of chattel slavery, race, discrimination, etc. The impact and influence of VA laws in other states can not be overstated.

2. Map Guide to US Federal Census 1790 to 1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide.
Whether using in my own research or in answering someone else query, I like to see where a county is located during a specific time frame (or whether it even existed during that time frame) and what other counties surround them, this is one of the things that helps me put things in context.

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