Finding African-American Ancestors in Champaign County: A Resource Guide

The history of Champaign County’s African-American community began in the pioneer days of Champaign, Urbana, and the surrounding towns and villages. The easiest way to get started searching for African-American history in Champaign County, as with any subject pertaining to local history in Champaign County, is to search the Local History Online database. You can begin with a quick search from the homepage, which leads to an alphabetical list of results from the Local History Online index. You may find it useful to click “More Searches” and choose a keyword search of our holdings as well. What types of results will you see while searching Local History Online? Below is a list of several types of resources that you can search at the Champaign County Historical Archives. Included are references to several resources specific to Champaign County’s local African-American history and individuals.

Photographs

The Champaign County Historical Archives currently holds three types of photograph collections: Local History Photographs, Streets and Addresses, and Personal and Family. All three collections include photographs that may be useful for African-American family history research. The Local History Photographs collection is a general collection that includes photographs of historically black schools, churches, businesses and organizations. The personal and family collection contains envelopes with hundreds of African-American individuals and families that have resided in Champaign County. Any keyword search can be limited by format to include results from the photograph collection.

Oral Histories

The oral history collection at the Champaign County Historical Archives includes over 60 oral history interviews with African-Americans in Champaign County. Most of these interviews have been transcribed and are available in digital audio and PDF formats through Local History Online. Below is a list of titles and location information for the African-American oral histories held at the Champaign County Historical Archives.

Champaign County Records

To locate records about a specific person, search Local History Online using the individual’s name. Holdings date back to the County’s pioneer days in the first half for the nineteenth century. Examples of records collections include: marriage licenses and applications, birth and death registers, estate and probate records, property and land records, cemetery and funeral home records, etc.

Special Collections

Special collections usually contain documents, records, and ephemera (memorabilia) pertaining to a specific family or organization. Occassionally, a special collection will contain information regarding a subject or topic such as World War One ephemera. A few collections of interest while researching Champaign County’s African-American communty include: Urban League of Champaign County, Records; Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church 1956-1993, Records; Local Schools Ephemera Collection.

Newspaper Articles

Occasionally, an ancestor or family member makes their way to a headline in the News-Gazette, Urbana Courier, Champaign Daily News, or another County paper. Typically, names in the newspaper are only indexed in Local History Online when they appear in an obituary, death announcement, or birth announcement. Keyword searches by topic can yield numerous, often interesting results in the form of newspaper articles.

Books

Most of the Archives’ print holdings are listed alphabetically by state, then county, and finally the first three letters of the author, title, or subject. Books with the call number A ILLINOIS (Champ), for example, pertain to Champaign County, Illinois. General histories of Champaign County found under the call number A ILLINOIS (Champ) HIS. Many pioneers and early residents of the county are featured in local legends and biographical sketches.

In addition to local histories, all of the family histories in the Archives are located under the call number A 929.2 followed by the primary surname or first listed surname that is the subject of the work. For a general introduction to African-American genealogical research, check out books with the call number A 929.3097 and A 929.37308.