Genealogy interest has exploded with the ease and availability of online research.

African American ancestry research has many challenges - one great obstacle being the institution of slavery, which broke family bonds and made record keeping nearly impossible.

Learn how to overcome the challenges of reaching back to the period before the Civil War. Overcome the challenges of tracing African American genealogy, by learning how to use the tools available through free library genealogy databases—including the Library Edition of Ancestry.com.