Before They Were Ancestors, LLC

05/19/2023

Here's an excellent source for records when you know the names of your ancestors who were enslaved:

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105), also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, was established in the War Department by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865. The Bureau was responsible for the supervision and management of all matters relating to the refugees and fre...

05/18/2023

TAKE OFF YOUR COOL: Poetry, Food, & Fellowship In Philly On The 4th

03/22/2023

Delaware Manumission (Freedom) Papers

Delaware Public Archives Digital Archive

03/22/2023

Virginia Records (Photos)

Family Photo Day is the first public event in a long-term project that's designed to transform the way we see the history of Charlottesville and the surrounding region. For too long, the stories of the black community have been ignored or told only in terms of racial oppression and the struggle to o...

03/05/2023

Our founder, Christopher K.P. Brown, is an African-American genealogist raised within a close-knit family from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In 2007, he graduated from Mercer University with a degree in African-American Studies. During his senior year, he began conducting research on his family tree, eventually tracing his roots back to South Carolina in the late 1700s. After college, K.P. moved to Philadelphia where he became fascinated with Philadelphia’s own William Still – a Black abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad. It’s in the spirit of William Still that our founder offers Before They Were Ancestors to Black families here in the United States of America.

03/05/2023

Find more information on our new website!

Before They Were Ancestors, LLC (BTWA) is a family tree research company. Our ideal clients are African-American families looking to find more information about their ancestors who lived from 1870 until now. We’ve chosen the year 1870 because that is the year in which formerly enslaved Black peopl...

03/05/2023

Book Resource: Dee Woodtor

This video is about My Movie 3