Roots of DNA
Build Your Family Research Path Beyond 1870
Follow a focused 21-day plan from known relatives and the 1870 census to the counties, courthouses, and records that may identify family members before emancipation.
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What’s inside
Everything laid out, step by step
+ Includes a free 1-page Quick-Start Checklist — the whole system at a glance, ready to print.
Why this works
For many Black American family researchers, the 1870 census feels like a wall. Earlier records may omit surnames, separate relatives, or identify an enslaver rather than the people we are trying to find. Without a clear plan, it is easy for us to search the same databases repeatedly and wonder where to turn next.
Past the 1870 Wall helps us slow down, document what we know, and build outward from the evidence. We start with home sources and the known-to-1870 family, reconstruct the wider community, and then use names, places, relationships, and migration patterns to target records from 1865–1870 and before emancipation.
Across 21 days, we work through specific record groups, compare conflicting clues, and keep careful citations. The worksheets and worked cases help us see how cluster research can connect census households to neighbors, employers, churches, witnesses, county files, and private collections.
By the end, we may have a more focused research path: the most likely county, the records worth requesting, the people connected to the family, and a written conclusion that separates what the evidence shows from what still needs to be investigated.
Look inside
The opening pages, exactly as you’ll get them
Welcome: Your Path Past the 1870 Wall
Researching African American family history before 1870 can feel like reaching the edge of a map. Names may disappear from federal census pages, surnames may shift, and records may describe people as property rather than as family members. These barriers are real, but they do not mean the search is over.
In this workbook, we will treat 1870 as a starting point for careful reconstruction. We will move backward from documented people, places, relationships, and events instead of beginning with an unverified story or a familiar surname.
Our goal is not to leap over 1870. It is to build a documented path through it, one piece of evidence at a time.
Why 1870 Matters
The 1870 federal census was the first census taken after emancipation. For many formerly enslaved people, it is the first federal census in which they appear by name within a household. That makes it a pivotal record, but not a complete record.
An 1870 household may include relatives, boarders, laborers, neighbors, or people temporarily living together. Ages may be estimated, names may be misspelled, and family relationships are not stated. We should use the record as a collection of clues rather than assume every detail is exact.
The path backward may lead through the 1860 or 1850 slave schedules, which generally named enslavers rather than enslaved people. It may also pass through Freedmen’s Bureau records, labor contracts, marriage records, probate files, estate inventories, tax lists, court proceedings, military records, church registers, land records, and local newspapers.
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Past the 1870 Wall
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