Documenting Enslaved People in WikiTree

Profile managers: Elaine Martzen [send private message], Emma MacBeath [send private message], and US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message]

WikiTree US Black Heritage Project Home Page
See: USBH Heritage Exchange Portal for more information on documenting slavery.

US Black Heritage Project's goal is to create a family profile for every enslaved ancestor named in every available document with the intention of honoring their lives and connecting them to their descendants.

WikiTree members do not need to join the US Black Heritage Project to employ the following methods of documenting slavery.

What You Need to Start

If you're an experienced WikiTreer, go to the Short Version of this page: Documenting Enslaved People -Short Version

• You will need documentation listing the enslaved ancestor(s) by name, which means at least a first name. If you do not have a first name (such as in the case of someone listed with only an age on a slave schedule), please see How to Document Unnamed Enslaved People. Documentation might include wills, bills of sale, runaway slave ads, manumissions, mortgages, or inventories.

The example profiles that follow are real people who both owned slaves and were enslaved. They are sparsely populated with information to show the basic components of slavery documentation. As the project continues it is our hope that we will be able to add additional biographical information to the profiles and connect the enslaved ancestors with their descendants.

Create the Enslaved Ancestor Profile

Example Profile: Lucy Daniel

1. Go to the WikiTree menu, choose Add+. In the dropdown choose New Person.

2. In the form that appears, add the first name as given on the source document.
3. If a last name is not given, please use the last name of the slave owner named in the document as a placeholder. For more information on naming conventions, please refer to Naming Conventions for Slaves

• If the document is a transfer of ownership from one owner to the next, use the first owner's last name as the Last Name at Birth and the second owner's last name as the Current Last Name field.

4. If an age is not given, use the date of the document and choose the "before this date" button. Explain the estimated birth date in the biography research notes.
5. Choose the gender if known.
6. If the birth location is unknown, use the location from the document. Do not enter a death date if you only have one document.
7. Add the source citation for the document in the source box.
8. Click the "Add New Person" button.

Example profile information from a will

• Proper First Name: John
• Last Name at Birth: Smith (first owner's last name)
• Current Last Name: Johnson (second owner's last name)
• Birth Date: before 12 March 1815 (no age was given in the document. This is the document date.)

Edit the Enslaved Ancestor Profile

You have created a profile for an enslaved ancestor! Now edit the profile to add additional crucial information.

1. Click the Edit tab.
2. If you used the birth location based on the document, click the uncertain button for the location.
3. Go to the Biography heading. If you used a slave owner's last name for the Last Name at Birth (LNAB) copy/paste {{Slave LNAB}} above the Biography heading. This notifies researchers the LNAB is a placeholder until a documented surname can be found. The template displays this box:

... ... ... is a part of US Black heritage.

5. Add a === Slave Owner === heading and list the name(s) of the slave owner below it.
6. Add a == Research Notes == heading to place notes regarding any estimated birth dates, locations, and the use of the slave owner's names as well as anything else you might know about the person.
7. Click Save.

Add Categories to the Enslaved Ancestor Profile

Adding categories to a profile puts the person in the US Black Heritage Project's Heritage Exchange system. To add categories, click the category button, then begin typing the name of the category.

Please add the following categories:

• "USBH Heritage Exchange"
• "County, State, Slaves" (if they were enslaved in more than one location, add a category for each location)

• If you don't see a category by location you need, please ask in the USBH Project Google group, in the project's Discord channel, or on this post.

Create the Slave Owner Profile

Example Profile: Joseph Daniel In his will probated on 1 November 1800, he bequeathed slaves to his various children, specifically, bequeathing Dick to his son Nathan Daniel.

1. Perform a genealogy search to find additional sources for the slave owner if their basic information is not yet known. (such as birth date and birth location)
2. Perform a search on WikiTree to see if this person's profile already exists by using the first and last name search fields at the top of the WikiTree website. If the profile does not exist, continue to step 3. If the profile does exist, please skip to the next section (Edit the Slave Owner Profile).
3. Go to the WikiTree menu, choose Add+. In the dropdown choose New Person.
4. In the form that appears, add the first and last name as they appear in the source documents.
5. Add the birth and death dates (or estimated dates) based on the sources. Choose the correct radio button about the date based on what you know from the documents.
6. Choose the gender.
7. Add the location(s) from the document.
8. Add one of the the source citations in the source box. (you will add the rest later)
9. Click the "Add New Person" button.

Edit the Slave Owner Profile

You have created a profile for the slave owner. Now edit the profile to add additional crucial information.

1. Click the Edit tab.
2. Mark the birth and death locations as certain or uncertain based on what you know from the source documents.
3. Add a === Slaves === heading below the Biography heading and biographical information. List the name(s) of any known slaves below it. If the list is longer than 10, please go to the Slavery Document Pages section below to learn how to create a separate page for the list.
4. Add additional sources below the Sources heading
5. Click Save.
6. When adding a list of slaves to a profile, especially one you don’t manage, please add something similar to this in the comment section of the profile. You can copy/paste the same message, changing the name each time.

As a member of the US Black Heritage Project, I have added a list of the slaves owned by <insert name> on this profile with categories using the standards of the US Black Heritage Exchange Program. This helps us connect enslaved ancestors to their descendants. See [https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:US_Black_Heritage:_Heritage_Exchange_Portal the Heritage Exchange Portal] for more information.

(if you are not a project member, just remove the first few words)

Add Categories to the Slave Owner Profile

Adding categories to a profile puts the person in the US Black Heritage Project's Heritage Exchange system. To add categories, click the category button, then begin typing the name of the category.

Please add the following categories:

• "USBH Heritage Exchange"
• "County, State, Slave Owners" (if they held slaves in more than one location, add a category for each location)

• If you don't see a category by location you need, please ask in the USBH Project Google group, in the project's Discord channel, or on this post.

• Do add the Slave Owner category and === Slave Owner === subheader to a person who rented slaves. This may be genealogically useful to descendants of enslaved ancestors. Please do not add it to a slave owner’s children named in the slave owner’s will, unless you see that the child did indeed later own slaves (i.e. from a census/slave schedule record, their own will, etc)

Add Document Transcriptions

If a transcription of a document is about a paragraph long, you can add it directly to the biography section under its own heading such as === Will of Joseph Daniel ===. However, if it is longer, it would best best to add that transcription to its own Free Space Page (FSP) using the following steps:

1. Go to the WikiTree menu, choose Add+. In the dropdown right click on New Free-Space. (this will allow you to have the Slave Owner's profile open in a separate tab)

2. Enter the Free Space Page name in the Title field: "Transcribed Will of" Slave Owner Name

• Example: Transcribed Will of Joseph Daniel

3. Surname/tag fields are optional. The USBH Project uses categories in lieu of tags.
4. In the Text area, place the information about the document source at the top. Add a link to the person the document belongs to using a Wiki Link.

• Example Wiki Link: [[Daniel-7857|Joseph Daniel]]

5. Click "Create This New Profile button."
6. Switch to the slave owner profile and click the edit tab.
7. Add the link to the newly created Free Space Page under the Sources heading using a FSP Wiki Link. The first part of the Wiki Link is copied from the second half of the page's URL.

• Example: [[Space:Transcribed_Will_of_Joseph_Daniel|Transcribed Will of Joseph Daniel]]

Connecting the Slave Profiles to the Slave Owner Profiles and Pages

Once the slave owner(s) have been identified and their profile(s) have been created, they should then be linked on each enslaved ancestor's profile using a Wiki Link as seen below.

• Copy and paste everything in the first column including the *
• To find the Wiki-ID for a profile, go to that profile and hover over the ID icon next to the name at the top. Click on it to copy the Wiki-ID. Then paste it into the Wiki Link code in place of "Wiki-ID".

Now link each enslaved ancestor on the list on the slave owner's profile using the same method as seen in the example below, however leaving off the placeholder last name.

This same method can be used on Free Space Pages. If you have created a transcription page for any documents that name slaves, go to that page and use Wiki-Links in place of their names as each profile is created.

Slave Owner Space Pages

Free Space Pages are used at WikiTree as a place to contain all slavery information for each slave owner and as a workspace. The pages are especially useful when trying to identify unnamed slaves held by an owner. See Creating Slave Owner Space Pages for detailed information on creating and setting up these pages.

Slavery Documentation Links

• US Black Heritage Project Page
• USBH Heritage Exchange Portal
• US Black Heritage: Naming Conventions for Slaves
• How to Document Unnamed Enslaved People
• Creating Slave Owner Space Pages

Acknowledgements

• Thank you to Dave Ebaugh who helped develop this slavery documentation process for WikiTree.
• Thank you to Babs Deacon who helped articulate the process into WikiTree help pages.