I've been gathering information for more than 10 years, primarily on my family. Within the past 6 years I've started to compile records on Norfolk City African Americans with the intention of publishing the data at some future point. Initially I thought it would take only a short amount of time, but I've since learned otherwise. I hope to publish something this year, only a small portion of what I've found, and then by next year and each year after, to publish something surrounding a theme. At the moment I'm starting with Free Black records from the 1790's to the 1830's. I've searched court, tax, marriage and other records during this timeframe and am trying to gather enough evidence to connect families. It's a long long process and much more difficult than I'd orginially imagined it would be.

I've not searched through Portsmouth records, but must one day as I have family from that area. My relatives in Portsmouth were members of the Hodges and Sumner families. After the Civil War they moved into Norfolk City, and then eventually to Annapolis, Maryland and Long Island, New York.