GeneaBabble

Interest in genealogy is growing among black Americans. This is probably largely due to all the buzz about Oprah’s roots and her DNA test and all that jazz. Well, whatever. As long as it generates an interest in genealogy, it’s all good.

Ancestry.com has just launched a large collection of African American records:

In celebration of Black History Month, Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, today announced the launch of the largest collection of African-American family history records available and searchable online.

The collection, which represents the 19th and early 20th centuries, features more than 55 million black family history records that collectively dispel the common misconception that very few historical records were kept for African-Americans and that tracing African-American ancestry is virtually impossible. [Read more]

I hope this helps to encourage more people to begin the journey of discovering their family histories. I think people such as Oprah and even Barack Obama (you’d be surprised how many visitors I got looking into Obama’s genealogy after writing a short post about it) are giving people an interest in where they come from. This is a very important thing and I hope to see it continue, not just for African Americans, but for all people.