New to African American genealogy? You are in the right place. Follow three clear steps — set up your free accounts, use the AI research tools, then search records state by state. When you get stuck, a professional genealogist is one click away.
1. Set up FamilySearch & Ancestry. 2. Use the AI tools to plan and check your work. 3. Search records by state. Do them in order and you will never wonder what to do next.
Show me Step 1Everyone begins the same way. Take the steps in order — each one prepares you for the next.
Create your free FamilySearch and Ancestry accounts — the foundation every researcher needs.
Go to Step 1 → 2Let Jenny build your research plan, then check your progress with the research analyzer.
Go to Step 2 → 3Open your state's page for deeds, probate, court, tax, church, and county records.
Go to Step 3 →These two accounts give you the working family-tree foundation — but they work differently, and knowing the difference saves money and frustration. 👤 FamilySearch is completely free: every record, every image, forever. 👤 Ancestry's account is free — you can build your tree, receive hints, and see what collections exist — but 💲 viewing most record images requires a paid subscription. Many public libraries offer Ancestry Library Edition free 🏛️, so check your library before you buy. The Hub then takes you beyond both platforms into deeds, probate, estate files, courts, tax records, newspapers, churches, and county archives.
Every record free with a 👤 free account. Build your tree, search historical records, and use the FamilySearch Catalog to find county-level deeds, probate, and church records — including microfilmed records that exist nowhere else online.
Open FamilySearch Account ↗The free tier builds your tree and shows which collections exist. Record images in most collections — wills and probate, county marriages, military files — need a subscription, or free 🏛️ library access through Ancestry Library Edition.
Open Ancestry Account ↗Done? Great — now let the AI tools tell you what to do with those accounts. Continue to Step 2 →
You don't have to guess. The Hub has two free AI tools built for African American genealogy — one to start a research problem, and one to check the work you've already done. Use Jenny first, then come back to the analyzer once you've searched a few records.
Jenny is your research-planning assistant. Tell her about your ancestor and the problem you're stuck on, and she builds a focused, historically informed next-step plan and points you to the right records in the Hub library.
Already searched some records? Describe what you've done and this tool audits your work: it skips what you've already tried and names the gaps most likely to break the problem open — the records you haven't thought of yet.
Try each tool free. When you're ready to save your work and use them without limits, become a member and unlock your personal Research Desk. Continue to Step 3 →
With your accounts open and a plan in hand, it's time to search. Choose the state where your ancestor lived and the Hub shows only that state's records — deeds, probate, estate files, courts, tax lists, newspapers, churches, and county archives, with the same icons and star ratings across every page.
Conflicting identities, a pre-1870 brick wall, or a DNA question? The guided intake organizes what you know and sends it to Reparative Genealogy for professional review.
Start Your QuestionYou don't need to buy anything to begin. These are the same three layers of tools professional genealogists use — free tools first, then account-based tools, then subscription and library resources.
No account, no cost. These alone can carry your research from today back to 1870 — and often beyond.
Free registration unlocks your tree, saved records, and most FamilySearch images.
Before paying, ask your public library — many offer these free 🏛️ from library computers.
Your first week of research costs nothing: interview your oldest relatives, write down every name, place, and church they remember, then open a free FamilySearch account and find your family in the 1950 census. When you're ready for a state's records, choose it in Research by State — every state page uses the same icons and star ratings you see in the legend above.
Jaunty Underwood's story moves from an eighteenth-century deed of gift and South Carolina chancery litigation to emancipation, migration, kinship, and family survival in Greene County, Alabama.
See how records, law, DNA, kinship, and historical context reconstruct an African American family history.
Enter the Jaunty ProjectGo beyond one research question. Members enter a continuing workspace with unlimited AI tool use, a saved Research Desk, live help, research planning, workshops, county resources, cultural collections, educator materials, reparations updates, and community directories.
Membership turns the site from a collection of links into an ongoing relationship with guidance, learning, and community — and unlimited use of the AI research tools.
When you become a member, the free AI tools gain a home. Your research is saved, organized, and waiting each time you return — with a live help desk one click away.
Keep one active ancestor, your objective, next steps, and a running research log — saved to your account and waiting when you return.
Members open a live chat with the Hub for real-time research help — beyond the AI tools and the Ask a Genealogist form.
AI planning, your saved desk, workshops, county resources, and cultural collections — the reason members come back.
Each collection opens independently.
State-specific records, institutions, and African American genealogy pathways.
Open South Carolina →Explore the developing discovery and descendant-reconnection project.
Open the project →Visit Kellie M. Farrish's professional genealogy practice for research, descendant verification, reparations work, and institutional projects.
Visit the main website ↗