The 1870 United States Census has become a brick wall for many African Americans trying to discover their roots. Many of their enslaved ancestors were listed as unnamed “property” before emancipation (1865). The 1870 Census Project - East Texas, a partnership between the East Texas Genealogical Society, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the FamilySearch Centers in East Texas, will start piecing together the fragments of their histories and records on FamilySearch, a free resource and accessible by everyone in the world. How will we do that? It starts with the 1870 Census! We are adding EVERY person from the 1870 Census, grouped with their family members, who lived in our East Texas counties, to the Family Tree, where they can be found.
