Our Folks' Tales

12/16/2025

When Were State Birth Records Started and Required (Updated Quicksheet)

If you are looking for birth records, including certificates, you need to know the timing of each state’s requirements. Each state in the U.S. started requiring birth registrations in different years. Generally, some types of records were created before the official state laws, either at the county, city, or town levels. This chart lists for each state when registration was required, when it started at local jurisdictions, and when general compliance with the state law was achieved.

Get the Quicksheet PDF at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/when-were-state-birth-records-started-and-required/

12/15/2025

Oh, I know this conversation is going to be amazing!! Hope you can come too.

UPDATE: Due to the wintery weather, the Tidewater Descendant roundtable has been moved to JANUARY 10.

More info here: https://events.wm.edu/event/view/lemonproject/370344

12/14/2025

Friendly Reminder: Black History Is Every Month

12/11/2025

None of these individuals who were sold are part of the communities I'm researching - at least that I know of - but I can't see a document like this and not share it.

1812 - Amherst, VA - Sheltons selling the people they enslaved.

Clipping found in Richmond Enquirer published in Richmond, Virginia on 6/19/1812.

12/11/2025

Let's have a little fun today. We all know that feeling of hitting a "brick wall" in our research. You're on a roll, uncovering amazing stories, and then... the trail goes cold. 🧱

So, let’s play a game of "Genealogy Genie." 🧞‍♂️ If you could snap your fingers and instantly have access to one dream tool or resource to help you find your people, what would it be?

Are you wishing for: ✨ The completely intact, readable 1890 Census? (The ultimate dream!) ✨ A single, comprehensive database with the names of every single enslaved ancestor? ✨ A magical grant that paid all your bills for six months so you could do nothing but research? 💰 ✨ Something else entirely?

Dream big with me! Drop your "genealogy wish" in the comments below. Let's see what we're all hoping for!

12/10/2025

In this season of light, let’s look deeper into our history. ✨

The holidays are a time for gathering, reflection, and tradition. But the ground we walk on in Charlottesville holds stories that often go unspoken during the festivities.

Before we close out the year, join Roots & Vistas Tours for a different kind of walk. "The Curious Cases of Color Tour" isn't just a stroll; it’s an act of remembrance and truth-telling.

We’ll move beyond the surface of Court Square and Main Street to confront the complex realities of slavery, celebrate the resilience of historic Black business owners, and examine the lingering echoes of Jim Crow.

Give yourself and the people you love the gift of understanding our city’s full story this holiday season.

🗓 When: Saturday, December 20th @ 11:00 AM. Meet at the Albemarle County Courthouse (501 E. Jefferson St.)

🎟 Cost is $25 per person. Children under 12 are $10. - Payable at the tour or via Venmo .

12/10/2025

Great information from Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

Bella Gibbons had family at Birdwood Plantation, for those of you who are tracking our work there.

When we speak of the legacy of the Jefferson School and the women who shaped its earliest years, we often begin with the indomitable Isabella Gibbons—formerly enslaved, later the celebrated teacher whose fierce intellect and compassion uplifted a generation of Black children in Charlottesville. Bu...

12/09/2025

This is an updated list of the surnames of people who were enslaved or labored at Birdwood Plantation in Albemarle County, Virginia. Some of these people married into enslaved families there. Some spent generations laboring there.

I'm happy to provide any information we have about these families and to see if I can help you find your people here. Feel free to DM me. THANKS.

12/04/2025

One of the things that so many of us are trying to solve is the problem of sharing our research data. We are family genealogists who hold, sometimes, the only copies of important documents. Or we're independent researchers with spreadsheets and photographs of archives sitting on our hard drives.

A lot of people have created partial solutions recording collections of certain data sets or creating databases about various locales. But I crave a central database of information about enslaved people and their descendants. (I'd also like that database to include information about free people of color and their descendants). That's not asking too much, right?

I'm hearing lots of conversations about things that are happening - at least here locally in Virginia - to bring us closer to those tools. And I am eager to support those efforts in any way I can.

But in the meantime, I'm still researching away. Gathering data. Sharing it publicly as much as I can. And soon, I'm hoping to share with you a new tool I came upon that lets us map lots of people and their connections to each other. More on that soon.

In the meantime, what data resource would you like to see exist?

(Image Description - Photo of wooden card catalog drawers. Photo by Jan Antonin Kolar on Unsplash)