Who are counted as African American,

Question

I have ancestors who were African American, Some returned to Africa and became citizens of Liberia.  Are those born in Liberia and who took Liberian citizenship counted as part of the African-American heritage project?

Answer 1

Some of them are.

Here is one of the profiles:https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Skipwith-375

If you'd like to join the US Black Heritage project, please do! There are many teams, plenty of knowledgeable members, etc.

EDITED because I misunderstood or glanced over part of the question.

Comments

If they were born in Liberia, they would not be American and would get the African sticker.

If they were born in America and moved to Liberia, becoming Liberian citizens, they would be African American.

---

What does an African Sticker look like?

---

{{African Ancestry}}  

It uses this image 

Answer 2

Hello Susan,

The US Black Heritage Project has a sub-project for the American Colonization Society (ACS) https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:American_Colonization_Society

So yes. They are counted as part of African American Heritage, but would not have the African American Sticker on their profile. Instead, because they are now African, they would receive the African Sticker.

All free and formerly enslaved people who emigrated would get the African-American Sticker and a migrating Ancestor sticker. Their children born in Liberia would not.

Another page linked to the ACS is a page of ships that transported them to Liberia. That page is here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Emigrants_to_Liberia

Feel free to contact me directly for any further questions you may have and do consider joining our project. There are many ships to process and profiles to create. We would love your help!

Comments

Thanks, Gina for the information. I would love to help. but not just yet. I need to input my family info. first, or at least put in the info. that I have and become more comfortable with Wikitree. I will contact you when I can help.

Susan

---

Sounds good. Feel free to reach out to me anytime while working on your family. 

Joining the project does not require you to help specifically, but it does give you acces to our one-to-one Path program that helps you navigate Wikitree and US Black Heritage. We have several members who are working only on their families but still connect with us. Adding families with black heritage is our work! 

Here is our Welcome Mat: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:US_Black_Heritage:_Welcome_Mat

There is a short form to fill out that will put you on a list. Emma can reach out to you from there. 

No pressure!

---

oops, I went to upvote and I hit the star. Sorry, Melanie. (This is why I hardly ever do that..I hit the wrong thing and have done so more than once.)

---

thanks so much for overseeing this amazing work, Gina!

---

Natalie - that's ok.  Gina deserves more than just two stars!  

---

Are you just recording those on the ships sent by the American Colonization Society to Liberia? What about the Maryland Colonization Society who sent many freeborn and enslaved to Maryland in Liberia? I would be interested in transcribing those records.

---

There certainly may be more ships. The state Colonization Societies certainly may have had their own ships. But I have only gotten through 14 of the 45 sent by the ACS. Have you looked through the ones here? https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Emigrants_to_Liberia

---

HI Gina, what about those born in Liberia but now live in the US and who have some ancestors born in liberia, but were previously slaves? I'd like to dig into that further and learn and be of help too.

---

Hi Jennie! Thanks for your question. We'd love to have your help! It would be great to get those people documented! 

The Liberia Project is also connected to our US Black Heritage project. 

You can add a sticker to any person born in Liberia: 

{{Liberia Sticker}} 

If they moved to the US from Liberia, please also add the {{African-American Sticker}}

However, if they were enslaved in the US and emigrated to Liberia, then you can add a Migrating Ancestor template beneath the African-American Sticker:

{{Migrating Ancestor
|origin= United States 
|origin-flag= US_Flags-26.png
|destination= Liberia
|destination-flag= African_Flags-27.png
}}

For descendants of people born in Liberia, you can also use: {{African Ancestry}} 

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about how to document those who were enslaved as we have very specific  standards for doing that. But you might also want to look for any ancestors who were emancipated to Liberia on our Emigrants to Liberia page. We have rolls for about 45 ships.

I hope this helps!