Expert genealogists Franklin Carter Smith and Emily Anne Croom approach the unique challenges to researching African American familial history in "A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your African-American Ancestors."
The book uses examples, illustrations and case studies to help anyone:
• Gather and preserve oral and social history;
• Research Census records, including the important 1870 Census;
• Use African American-specific sources, including the Freedmen's Bureau and Freedman's Bank records;
• Work with and evaluate county and federal records.
The publishers say this book is helpful because it includes methods to successfully research slavery-era records, helping to identify an ancestor's slaveholder and slaveholding family. Case studies from various states and time periods tell the stories of real families whose lives were recorded in public records that you too can use.
Co-author Franklin Carter Smith earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Houston Law Center. An avid genealogist since 1977, he has successfully researched his slave ancestry back to 
1760.A researcher since 1969, Emily Anne Croom has a master's degree in history; she is a genealogy lecturer and teacher and has written five books on genealogy research and numerous articles for genealogy periodicals
