ABSTRACT
Genealogical research depends on written historical records for determining family relationships, and reliance on a chain of documents back through time inevitably leads to brick walls for researchers. While there are numerous reasons for such barriers, two common causes are that records have been destroyed or they were never kept in the rst place. For example, during the American Civil War the southern states experienced extensive record loss resulting from a scorched earth policy that was implemented by Union General William T. Sherman. Designed to spread fear and break the morale of the Confederate States by destroying property, Sherman’s March to the Sea was a 1000mile march across the south where soldiers burned property indiscriminately, including government buildings where vital records were stored. As a result, many genealogy researchers with ancestry from the southern states cannot extend these lineages beyond the late 1800s. Similarly, African Americans have a particularly dicult task when tracing ancestors beyond the late 1800’s since many of their African ancestors before this time were enslaved, and only limited records if any were kept on slaves. Prior to emancipation, slaves were considered property and therefore they could not legally marry, vote, own land or participate in other activities recorded in vital records. Furthermore, the 1870 census was the rst time African Americans were listed by name as opposed to simply being listed as a number, age and gender.
