Virginia began recording people’s births in 1853. Even children born to enslaved women are found in the records between 1853 and the end of slavery. A set of books has been published to assist genealogists with those records: “Virginia Slave Births Index 1853-1865,” edited by Leslie Anderson Morales (Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books, 2007).
Those records can be helpful for African American genealogists except for one problem: Before 1865, most Black families did not have recognized family names. Until now, the only indexes available for those records, such as Morales’ work, were by the name of the slave owner. If you didn’t have the name of that white person, you would have to use a lot of guesswork, studying the 1870 census and other records, to speculate who the enslaver might have been.
Now, however, we have indexing that allows us to search for the child’s and the mother’s given names without knowing which white family they were associated with. FamilySearch.org has digitized the indexing done by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, as well as linked the index to images of the original birth records. See the FamilySearch Wiki for details.
Here is an example: Thomas and Mary Jane Chinn are shown on the 1870 census of Occoquan Township, Prince William County. They had eight children, including five born between 1853 and 1865. Although early recordkeeping was somewhat spotty, chances are that some of these children would be recorded. Here are their names and ages in 1870: Oscar (16), John (12) [known as John Clay Chinn], Willie (11), George (10), and “Barber” [Robert] (5).
Sometimes the child’s or mother’s name is missing from the birth register. Prince William, being in the path of war, did not record births between 1861 and 1865. Regardless, the following sons appear in the birth records of Prince William:
Osgar [sic], born 15 Mar. 1854, mother -----, owner: “Wroe”
John Clay, born 12 Apr. 1856, mother Mary Jane, owner: Henry F. Roe.
William, born 10 Feb. 1859, mother Mary Jane, owner: Henry F. Wroe.
Timesaving tip: You can put several children’s names in the search box at once, along with their mother’s name. Sometimes that will bring up exactly the records you need.
These early birth records should be even more useful now that they are fully indexed.
