African Americans in Baltimore
Freedom Records (also called Manumissions) for Baltimore City are available in electronic form online at Baltimore City Freedom Records.
The Maryland State Archives has put together an excellent overview of African Americans in Baltimore at From Frederick Douglass to Thurgood Marshall: Black Baltimore in Transition. Also helpful is their more overarching page on The Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland, which has many useful links.
Also take a look at the section of the bibliography based on the work of Dean Krimmel, Anita Kassof, and Richard Longstreth entitled The African-American Experience in Baltimore and Maryland.
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I am trying to find the birth record for my father,Edgar Jones Powell, born in Baltimore City on MAY 26, 1910. Can you help, his mothers name was Marietta Jones Powell.
Lillian- take a look at our Vital Records page- all birth/death records are located at the Maryland State Archives. http://baltimorecityhistory.net/research-at-the-baltimore-city-archives/vital-records-of-baltimore-city/
For me this site is not user friendly. I just spent 5 hours today at a workshop on the Baltimore City Archives expecting to get pointers on using this site. Instead the time was devoted listening to learned historians read their papers that they completed by using records found at the Baltimore City Archives. That was not helpful to me. Now I am trying to maneuver through this site, and I am not being successful.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble. You are more than welcome to e-mail us directly concerning specific research goals- we’ll be happy to help you sort it out. Our e-mail is listed on our homepage.
Hello Amy, I was hoping to be able to “fish” for mention of any of my ancestors on the Baltimore City Archives website, but I don’t think that this will be possible. My ancestors migrated to Baltimore between 1900 and 1915, and the one Record Group (RG4) where they may appear in the records, is not yet available online for that time period. I also assume that they may be a part of RG23, but I do not know how to access any information from it. Thank you for responding to the comment that submitted. Lillian L Alston