Roots of DNA
Trace Your Surname to Records Before 1870
Follow a 21-day plan to build a documented path from the relatives you know to the county, courthouse, and slavery-era records connected to your family.
Instant download · 30-day money-back guarantee · Secure checkout by Stripe
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
When we reach the 1870 census, it can feel as if the family story simply stops. But the surname we carry is a geographic clue—one that leads us toward a county, a courthouse, and a wider community recorded in documents beyond the census.
Past the 1870 Wall gives us an organized process for following that clue. Over 21 days, we build the 1870 family profile, reconstruct the people around the family, cross into slavery-era records, and document every connection as we go.
This workbook does not identify an ancestor or enslaver for us; it gives us the research system, worksheets, and record strategies to follow the evidence ourselves.
Look inside
The opening pages, exactly as you’ll get them
Welcome: How to Get Past the 1870 Wall
For many Black families in the United States, the 1870 census marks a major change in the paper trail. It was the first federal census taken after emancipation and the first to list most formerly enslaved people by name within their own households.
That makes 1870 a starting point, not a dead end. Once we identify the correct family in 1870, we can use names, ages, locations, relationships, occupations, property, and nearby households to search backward into records created during slavery.
We do not leap over the 1870 wall. We build a documented path through it, one supported conclusion at a time.
Begin With What You Know
Our first task is not to search for an enslaver or guess at a plantation. We begin with the most recent relative whose identity we can document, then move backward generation by generation.
For each person, record:
- Full name and known name variations
- Approximate birth, marriage, and death dates
Not sure yet?
Read a free chapter first
We’ll email you the opening chapter as a PDF — no strings, unsubscribe with one click.
Inside the pages
A peek at what you’ll find
The story
The Method Behind Felicia Talks History
On the Felicia Talks History YouTube channel, we show how family-history clues connect across censuses, communities, courthouses, and slavery-era records. Viewers kept asking for the method behind the videos: where to begin, what to search next, and how to keep the evidence organized.
Past the 1870 Wall is that method, collected and arranged into one practical workbook. It turns the trail from surname to county to courthouse into a 21-day process, with printable worksheets, record walkthroughs, worked examples, and clear next actions.
Instead of piecing the system together across separate videos, you work through it in order and build a documented path that continues beyond the 1870 census.
Everything you get
$47$37
First-edition price. When the Second Edition ships, new buyers pay $47 — you'll already own it.
Get instant access — $37Get your copy
Past the 1870 Wall
$37
Your 30-Day Guarantee
Your purchase is protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have a full month to review the workbook and decide whether it fits your research.
Get instant access — $37