where would i need to look for "bill of sale" records for ancestors of mine that were slaves?

Answer 1

I found tons of sites by search engine for slave registry.
Slave insurance registry, also.

Congress has a bill before it, last I checked anyway,
for tri-billion dollars to make the NARA ARC records
available on-line. (You can check Thomas on-line
for the bill enactment date).
So try NARA ARC.

This following site is about inheriting property (including human beings back then, such as indentured servants)
dinsdoc.com/goodell-1-1-4.htm

Also, I read some about the lot sales, and I think it was in an old kind of newspaper called a Gazetteer, but now I just find links mostly about geography. Which reminds me about advertisements placed in early county newspapers (real eye openers causing one to pause).

First I'd use usgenweb national for clusters of names
(that is, if your earliest census records don't give state of birth), then the states for your surname clusters, then
add the type of record name (slave? servant?) to the surname with aNd, then after locating clusters of counties...begin to look for wills/probates, tax lists, and newspaper stories.

In the north, again, I think you'd be looking for indentured servants in will records and freed papers.

Lists of Freedmans would be a good link (use of word before the internet).

Remember to keep descriptions intact with your records,
as descriptive characteristics were used to distinguish between people with the same first names.

Have heart. You'll get through the 1800 "gasp" easier than those ancestors that knew that record-keeping was about the exchange of money and went way out of the way to avoid being recorded "anywhere." At least your family roots are among the wealthy (record keeping) people. Mine kept looking for the "land of opportunity" all the way across the US from way upper NE to the middle road to middle CA to the upper NW.

Someone once wrote on AOL, "Would my dead ancestors please e-mail me." To that someone updated it recently with, "And, please file attach your genealogy records in PDF format!"

Answer 2

You'll need to get your family names and records back to the mid-1800s. Do you know the name of your great grandparents and where they were living? Do you have any idea of which plantation their were on or who their owners were?

It's okay if you don't because you can also use the census records, if you have a name. The problem is, if they had a really common name, on a plantation there might be several with the same name. It's not always easy but I would start with census records from the correct state and also the correct county.

If your parents are living, and especially if you have grandparents or even great grandparents, find out about names and where people were living, birth dates and where they were married. The more information you can get from the earliest time period the better off you will be.

Then when you have established where and when and who, then you can go to the county records for that county and they should have a large number of contracts dealing with the sale of slaves. Also, a good many universities have records dealing with slave sales, including Univ. North Carolina, LSU and Univ. of Texas, Austin just to name a few.

Answer 3

Hi, Kelley...
You already know that you are working "back" from present to then, right? You need to have found your family in the 1870 or 1880 census, and identified that specific county or state.
It is common (not guaranteed) that your ancestors may have adopted the surname of the former owners. So, this is the point where you will start focusing on areas such as genforum, that specializes in a surname. You need to post a query, looking for the caucasian families of that name, who lived in that county, and in that time frame.
Most people doing online research are not aware of the depth of records that exist NOT online, but in court records or private family records. Or, have searched through the original filmed census records, some of which will include how many slaves were owned, or value of property. You are looking to locate any caucasian families who are possibly former owners, and dig for their recorded deeds, for transfer of slaves from one individual to another. The other primary record will be estate records... not just wills, but inventories. Those are the records you are going to be trying to locate.
It is possible that with luck, some of those items will lead back into the late 1700's.
Have you taken time to visit www.cyndislist.com, and find her section concerning African American research?? I seem to recall (don't quote me) a project at one time, where the families who had those records were making specific and targeted efforts to collect these special focus records, and make them more easily available, for those who have need of those to continue their work.
Another place that I think might be of help, would be the reference librarians at some of the state archives, mainly Geogia, Virginia, North Carolina who may be aware of special collections related to this.

Answer 4

It would be an interesting road to travel, looking for specific slave documents that may or may not exist. Worth trying for the research, I'd think.

I had exactly one long-ago ancestor's brother who owned slaves. Quakers bugged him so long that he freed them before he died. I made a separate tree online for what I could make out of that particular colonial black family in case anyone ever looks for them. It's pretty sparse but has lots of clues for a researcher. Quakers kept good records!

Answer 5

any geneology site--also--city hall and town records of where they were. Do you at least know that?
This is a monumental task.
Blacks often changed thier names and fled to another state with a new name. It would be virtually impossible if your last name is Jones or Brown. BTW--there were very common English names once: Now they are very common Black people's names. If a slave was sold--the name was often changed too.
Good luck--and why bother? let's move forward