Researching African American Genealogy in Alabama

Over the past two decades, in workshops and personal consultations, thousands of persons have have received the expertise and knowledge of author Frazine Taylor about Alabama genealogical research. Now in her book, Researching African American Genealogy in Alabama: A Resource Guide, Frazine provides the information and guidance to help locate the resources available for researching African American records in archives, libraries, and county courthouses throughout the state. The idea for this guidebook rose out of her lecturing throughout the country and having noticed that reference guides on African American family history resources seemed to exist for every state except Alabama. This was regrettable not merely for researchers on African American history in Alabama. In fact, Alabama's records play an especially important role in U.S. family history research because of the migration patterns of Alabama's freedmen, first to urban areas of Alabama and then to northern cities, a trend that continued throughout the first part of the twentieth century.