When I watched the episode with Brooke Shields' traipsing through the palaces in Italy and France, I thought to myself, MY episode would probably lead me to the coal mines in Wales!

This reminded me of a real genealogical situation that happened to me!

One of my ancestors immigrated from England with two brothers, who (legend has it) moved on to Utah and became Mormons. So, when I received an email from a man looking for relatives of Susan Bloxsom, I immediately assumed that he was from Utah. We confirmed our relationship, and offered to share information. As we exchanged addresses, I found out that he was from the same town in England where Susan had lived (Newcastle), in fact, on the next block! Can you even imagine walking past your ancestor's home from 400 years ago? Oh, and bless his little baby heart for giving me so much information - we had given up on that particular line!

I'm trying to figure out a way to find slave manifests/documents/birth records for the Virginia Commonwealth. Also, lists of slave holders from particular years in Virginia. Any good reference sites?? Would the Library of Virginia be of any use?

There's a company at http://www.genealogical.com which has a TON of books on almost every aspect of genealogy. One of this week's sale books is Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to About 1820. Fifth Edition. Two Volumes - I can hardly handle the site without forking over a paycheck!

I went to the site just now, and put Slave Lists in the Keyword catagory. I think 16 separate books came up, but what was even more interesting were the varying in titles! I know that the 1790 census (the first one) only has the head of the household, and no other names. so that wouldn't help you. I'm trying to get better at different types of genealogy, but each time I think I have one conquered, up springs another one!

Good luck!


ETA: I absolutely loved Edie Falco's lineage! It's proof positive that, no matter what you hear, it somehow comes out differently on paper!

Try afrigeneas.com. If you know at least the last name, birth or death date, and a specific town of at least one person, you are pretty likely to find leads. The Library of Virginia *should* be of use. If you know names of churches or burial grounds, all the better. Best of luck!

Thank you both!!

I love this show as well! Could be my love of history and where we come from. I also used to watch the PBS series whenever it would air. My only issue is that the average person won't be able to search their genealogy the way celebs do, the extensive traveling. I will say in my own personal search I've done pretty well without having to leave home, but will have to hit the road if I really want to dig in.

To ninjapoodle I ran into some sites during my search that I will try to get to u as soon as I can. I noticed the earliest most African Americans could find any ancestors were the 1870 census, which helped me. Before that would be the slave records maybe 1850 or 1860, I can't remember right now, but they may give a name and age. I eventually ran into a wall on one side with the whole name change thing.

I watch this show as often as I can. I am a fan of Dr. Gates and the show with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick was very interesting. And the fact that they're VERY distant cousins was great!

A more detailed show on PBS called Finding Your Roots! I love it!

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/

Whoo Hoo! from Ancestry's FB page:

"Who Do You Think You Are?" is back! We're happy to announce that Ancestry.com and TLC are teaming up to bring you a new season starting July 23rd!

Glad TLC picked it up. I had heard that NBC cancelled it.

I'm glad TLC picked it up too. It's a great show and very inspiring.

There has been dancing in the streets in honeychileville!! I can't wait to see the latest crop of people, AND to see if they get a little bit more into detail on the research other than "check out ancestry.com"!

For those of y'all interested in getting tips and articles on genealogy, there's a free daily newsletter, Eastman's Online Genealogy, to which I've subscribed for years. You can also pay for the Plus version (not too much different) for $19.95/year. A sample would be an article on a historic cemetery, The Tucker Family Cemetery, one of the earliest African-American cemeteries.

So, it's back! It's on TLC and they have 8 episodes! Whoo Hoo!
preview:

http://www.tvguide.com/news/who-do-y...w-1067616.aspx

ETA
"Kicking off the series on July 23 is Kelly Clarkson, followed by Christina Applegate (July 30), Chelsea Handler (Aug. 6) and then Zooey Deschanel (Aug. 13). Additional participants include Chris O'Donnell, Jim Parsons, Cindy Crawford and Trisha Yearwood."