Here are a few sites people may find helpful:

General site for the South. Has good census and county formation maps.

http://www.segenealogy.com/

Rootsweb or usgenweb message boards. These boards are not white or black or ethnically oriented; rather they are

organized by state and county. They are not usually as responsive as Afrigeneas boards. Find your state and county. Post

your information, including names, dates or general time period, locations. If you don't see any African American info there,

it's probably because YOU haven't added yours. So post your queries to find information, and your information to help

others looking for it! When you post on Afrigeneas, copy your post and repeat it on the county boards.

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.usa.states

http://www.usgenweb.com/statelinks-table.html

Towns and locations are necessary for understanding where to research. Be very careful of county names in particular as

counties were often redefined in the late 1800s. People who may not have moved may be listed in 2 or more counties

because of boundary changes.

http://www.abcreports.com/states/cross_reference.htm

http://www.LivGenMI.com/1895.htm

General search engine:

Be specific and creative in your searches.

Try a search like "HALE family Monroe County MS"

if you need to know about a town or area, search for it listing both town and state.

http://www.google.com/

http://www.metacrawler.com

Social security death index, available from several places, here's one.

http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm

Other helpful places for modern death information:

http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/deathrecords.html

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~obitl/ovlist.html

General HISTORY....read all you have time for:

http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html

http://www.autositecreator.com/websites/10685/1.htm

http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimeline3.htm