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Black History is
American History.
Black History is American History.
Curious about the ancestors who paved the way for you? You’ve come to the right place. Explore the untold stories of your past with family tree features, DNA tools, and more.
Search for your family’s story.
Search for your family’s story.
With StoryScout, you can quickly reveal fascinating details about specific ancestors. To give it a try, just enter a grandparent’s info as your starting point, then see what discoveries await.
With StoryScout, you can quickly reveal fascinating details about specific ancestors. To give it a try, just enter a grandparent’s info as your starting point, then see what discoveries await.
Top tips for making meaningful discoveries.
Top tips for searching your family history.
Top tips for searching your family history.
From talking with relatives to checking the spelling of names, Ancestry® expert Nicka Sewell Smith shares her suggestions for navigating your family’s past.
From talking with relatives to checking the spelling of names, Ancestry® expert Nicka Sewell Smith shares her suggestions for navigating your family’s past.
Choose a path to start your family history journey.
Find details about your family in the 1950 U.S. Federal Census
Create your family tree with help from Ancestry Hints
Pinpoint your African roots with AncestryDNA
Find out how your ancestors
helped shape the nation.
Find out how your ancestors helped shape the nation.
Search our record collections.
The U.S. census has been taken every ten years from 1790 to today, and these records can hold significant details about your ancestors’ lives. You may find personal information like names of household members, birthplaces, occupations, and more.
African Americans have a distinguished history of serving in
the U.S. Armed Forces. More than 350,000 Black servicemen and women fought in WWI and 20 years
later, two and a half million
registered and over one million served in WWII.
FREE COLLECTION
The Freedmen's Bureau records are one of the most important collections of Black family history and can provide details of your ancestors’ lives before 1870—including their personal letters, where they settled after the Civil War, and much more.
FREE AND UPDATED
The Articles of Enslavement are a first-of-its-kind collection of newspaper articles that offer a glimpse into the lives of formerly enslaved people, including names, ages, and physical descriptions
that could lead to key
breakthroughs in your research.
EXPLORE YOUR ORIGINS
AncestryDNA provides a detailed view of your African roots.
AncestryDNA provides a detailed view of your African roots.
Discover your origins from over
3,000+ places around the world—
including 22
distinct regions and 63
ethnic groups across Africa. By
connecting you to the
places your
ancestors once lived, AncestryDNA
can help you grow your family
tree
and provide a more complete picture
of your past.