DOCUMENT YOUR LINEAGE
Build the Connection, One Generation at a Time.
You do not need to know your entire family history before you begin.
My Freedmen Lineage helps you document the people, places, relationships, and records that connect one generation to the next. Start with yourself and the family members you know. As the lineage moves backward, MFL helps identify what is documented, what is still unknown, and which records may help answer the next question.
Whether your family history leads to Five Tribes Freedmen, formerly enslaved ancestors, Free Persons of Color, another historical pathway—or a question that has not yet been answered—the research begins the same way:
Start with what you know. Follow the evidence.
You can save your progress and return as your research grows.
You Don’t Need Every Record to Begin
Start with the people and information you already know. A name, date, place, family relationship, photograph, obituary, or remembered story can provide the first connection. My Freedmen Lineage helps organize those clues and identify which records may strengthen each generation.
Start With Yourself
Record your name, birth information, parents, and the places connected to your life.
Connect One Generation
Add parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, and other relationships you already know.
Follow the Records
Use certificates, obituaries, census records, photographs, family accounts, and other evidence to strengthen each connection.
What Can Help Document a Generation?
No single document tells the whole family story. Different records may confirm a name, relationship, date, location, household, or change in identity. Use what is available and allow multiple records to support the same connection.
Vital & Identity Records
Birth certificates, delayed birth certificates, death certificates, marriage and divorce records, Social Security applications, identification documents, and name-change records.
Family & Relationship Records
Obituaries, funeral programs, family Bibles, photographs, letters, guardianship or adoption files, affidavits, oral histories, and records naming parents, siblings, spouses, or children.
Household & Community Records
Federal and state censuses, tribal censuses, city directories, school records, church records, cemetery records, voter registrations, utility records, employment files, and military records. Fraternal and benevolent-society records, Masonic and Prince Hall lodge records, Order of the Eastern Star records, membership rolls, annual proceedings, funeral benefits, and cemetery symbols.
Historical Lineage & Status Records
Freedmen’s Bureau records, emancipation or manumission documents, tribal enrollment cards and jackets, tribal censuses and rolls, rejected or canceled applications, appeals, Freedmen’s Bank records, slave schedules, probate files, estate records, and other records identifying an ancestor’s historical status. Underground Railroad and vigilance-committee journals, abolitionist correspondence, freedom-seeker interviews, runaway advertisements, aliases, and records connecting former and chosen names.
Property, Court & Land Records
Deeds, allotment records, homestead files, land patents, leases, tax records, probate cases, court filings, guardianship records, property transfers, maps, and records showing where a family lived or held land.
Immigration & Entry Evidence
Passenger lists, border-crossing records, naturalization files, passports, and an ancestor’s earliest appearance in United States, territorial, or tribal records may help explain how a family entered the documentary record. The absence of an immigration record alone does not prove Freedmen or Free Person of Color ancestry.
Begin Briefly. Build as You Discover.
Your first lineage profile asks only what you know today. You can begin with yourself or another relative, identify the places and historical pathways you are exploring, and note the records you already have. As account features become available, you will be able to connect this profile to a person, add relatives, upload records, answer relevant follow-up questions, and return as your research grows.