If you are researching African American ancestry, you have almost certainly heard of the 1870 wall. It is the moment in your research when your ancestors appear — by name, for the very first time — in the 1870 federal census, and then vanish entirely from the paper record before that date.

This is not a failure of your research. It is a direct consequence of slavery.

Before emancipation, the federal government did not record the names of enslaved people. The 1850 and 1860 slave schedules listed them by age, sex, and color only — attached to the name of the person who claimed ownership of them. Their births were not registered. Their marriages were not recognized by law. Their children were recorded as property, not people.

So when you find your great-great-great-grandmother in 1870 at age 35 in Marshall County, Mississippi, and she simply does not exist in any record before that year — you have not hit a dead end. You have hit the wall that slavery built.

Here is how to begin dismantling it.

— STRATEGY 1: THE 1880 CENSUS FIRST —

Before you go backward, go forward one decade. The 1880 census recorded relationships within households for the first time. If your ancestor is there, you may find siblings, parents, or parents-in-law listed — giving you additional names to research backward from 1870.

— STRATEGY 2: CLUSTER RESEARCH IN 1870 —

Do not just research your ancestor. Research everyone around them in 1870: neighbors on the same census page, people with the same surname, people of similar ages. Formerly enslaved people often settled near family members and near the land where they had been held. The family that appears two entries above yours on that census page may be your ancestor's mother and siblings.

— STRATEGY 3: IDENTIFY THE SLAVEHOLDER —

The surname your ancestor took after emancipation is often (but not always) the surname of the family that enslaved them. Search the 1850 and 1860 census for white families with that surname in the same county. Then pull the slave schedule for those white families. A 35-year-old woman in 1870 would have been born around 1835 — so you are looking for a female enslaved person of about that age in the 1860 slave schedule, listed as property under the right surname.

— STRATEGY 4: FREEDMEN'S BUREAU RECORDS (1865–1872) —

These are the most underused records in African American genealogy and among the most valuable. The Freedmen's Bureau documented labor contracts, marriage registers (because emancipated people could now legally marry, and many registered existing relationships immediately), ration records, hospital records, and complaints. Many of these records name both formerly enslaved people and their former enslavers. Search at FamilySearch.org — they are free and increasingly complete.

For North Carolina researchers: the NC Freedmen's Bureau collection is at FamilySearch Collection #1803698. For Mississippi: Collection #2898261.

— STRATEGY 5: ESTATE AND PROBATE RECORDS —

When an enslaver died, their estate was probated through the county courthouse. Enslaved people were listed by name in estate inventories — sometimes with ages and family groupings. These records are often the only pre-1865 documents that name individual enslaved people. Many are on FamilySearch under county courthouse records; others require writing directly to county courthouses or visiting state archives.

— STRATEGY 6: WPA SLAVE NARRATIVES —

Between 1936 and 1938, the Works Progress Administration interviewed more than 2,300 formerly enslaved people who were still living in their old age. These interviews are among the most powerful primary sources that exist. Interviewees named the counties and families they had been enslaved by, named siblings and parents, described the plantation, and described life before and after emancipation. The full collection is free at the Library of Congress: loc.gov — search "Slave Narratives Federal Writers Project."

— STRATEGY 7: DNA —

When paper records run out, DNA can continue the story. Your DNA matches are living relatives. Clustering your matches — grouping people who also match each other — can help you identify which family line a mystery ancestor belongs to even when no paper record exists. This is especially powerful for identifying the enslaved family's origins before emancipation.

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Post your brick wall below. Share your ancestor's name, approximate birth year, and last known location before 1870. This community has walked these roads. Someone may have already found what you are looking for.