The African Americans in the 1870 Census CD-ROM is an electronic database from the American Genealogical Lending Library. Broderbund announced a partnership with AGLL some time ago, but this is the first CD-ROM disk that I have seen produced by that partnership. The CD-ROM disk contains listings of approximately 660,000 individuals listed as black or mulatto in the 1870 federal census returns from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. In addition, it contains the counties that cover Chicago, New York City and St. Louis. It also contains both Baltimore City and Baltimore County in Maryland.

The index on the CD-ROM attempts to list only the head of household for each black family listed. Names of spouses and children are not listed on this CD-ROM with the following exceptions:

• Individuals residing within the same household who have a different surname than the head of household are listed.
• Any male aged 50 or over is listed.
• Any female aged 70 or over is listed.
• Any individual in the household listed as a different race or color is listed, regardless of surname or age.
• All individuals in orphanages are listed.

Keep in mind that this disk is an index, not the actual records. Like the index in the back of any book, it is a quick way to locate information, but you will always want to turn to the actual information to obtain the full story. In this case, the actual information is on microfilm, which you can obtain from the National Archives or via the LDS Family History Centers or any of several other places. The index tells the exact page, reel and series numbers needed to obtain the details. The 1870 U.S. census on microfilm does list all individuals by name, not just the head of household information as contained on the CD-ROM.

A number of other useful texts are included on the CD-ROM disk, including:

February 5, 1997

Related Family Archives • Georgia • Illinois • Maryland • Missouri • North Carolina • New York • Pennsylvania • South Carolina • Virginia • West Virginia More Articles • How-To-Guide: African-American Research Tips • Family History and Ethnic Genealogy • Free African Americans of NC and VA Helpful Web Sites • African-American Resources On the Message Boards • GenForum: U.S. States

• Foreword to "Ethnic Genealogy" by Alex Haley
• "Black American Records and Research" by Charles L. Blockson
• Several excerpts from Val Greenwood's book "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, 2nd edition" that deal with Black American genealogy research
• "A Short Guide to the 'Misteaks' Made in the Census Indexes" by Richard H. Saldana

• Family Tree Maker
• FamilyFinder Index and Viewer
• Family Archive Viewer (a free program)

I used Family Tree Maker version 3.02 for Windows 95. To load the CD-ROM data, select VIEW from the pulldown menus and then select FamilyFinder. An introductory page then appears that gives background information on the data and has information on how to search the CD-ROM. The Help file is available, too. Broderbund includes a small 19-page booklet with the CD-ROM disk, but you probably won't need to use it.

Searching for data is intuitive. I clicked on the "Search Expert" icon and entered the name of EASTMAN. Within a few seconds a list of all the individuals with the last name of EASTMAN appeared on screen. From this list, I could click on any name shown and then click on "Find out additional information..." to show all the details. For instance, here is the information shown on Absalom Eastman:

• Sex: Male
• Age in 1870: 58
• State: Pennsylvania
• County: Carbon Co.
• Location: Mauch Chunk Borough
• Calculated birth date: 1811-1812
• Birthplace: Pennsylvania
• National Archives series number: M593
• National Archives microfilm number: 1320
• Microfilm page number: 293
• Race: Mulatto

To print information from the CD, you highlight the name of an individual, go to the EDIT Menu and then choose Select Entry. This puts a check mark next to the individual's name. Then go to the FILE Menu and choose Print. The printout includes a header with the name of the CD, the name of the person you selected, and all information that's included about that individual (including the details that are visible when you click the "Find out additional information..." button at the bottom of the screen).

In addition, anyone who uses Family Tree Maker can copy the data from the CD-ROM to their genealogy database. (I would caution newcomers to genealogy to never copy unverified data to your database.)

All in all, this will be a very interesting CD-ROM for anyone who is researching African-American ancestry. The 1870 federal census is the first one to list all blacks by name. The states included on this disk include a high percentage of the Black Americans of that year, although obviously not all. Keep in mind that this is an index only and that it lists only the limited individuals described earlier. Even if you don't find your ancestor listed on the CD-ROM index, you will still want to look at the microfilm copies of the original records for any families of the same surname in the same area. Your ancestor may be listed in the original records.

Discover More About African Americans in the 1870 Census (Family Archive 165) Purchase Family Archive 165 for only $29.99!

About the Author

Dick Eastman also writes a popular weekly newsletter of online genealogy news and reviews -- "Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter." You can subscribe to this newsletter by sending email to subscribe@rootscomputing.com. The message title should be SUBSCRIBE.

Back to Top of Article