Researching African American Slavery in Kentucky: Enslaved Birth Records

From 1852-1911, counties that maintained annual birth records in Kentucky also included the births of children born to both free African American parents and enslaved parents. There are a significant number of entries with the first names of the newborns and the names of one or both parents. If the slave owner was the father, then his full name was given. There were counties with birth record lists that included blank spaces, no names, and the word "slave" as the entry for the birth of an enslaved baby. Some records have the name of the slave owner in place of the parents' names. For some of the records, there are births recorded for more than one county. 

Within Ancestry.com, there are about 36,000 persons listed in the Kentucky birth records as "enslaved," and  "Black," or "Mulatto," or some other notation that the baby was not considered free-born. There are also birth records at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort, KY, and at some public libraries in Kentucky. There are not records for all Kentucky counties, and some of the earlier records no longer exist. 

For more information see A Guide to Kentucky Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1852-1910, Revised Edition 1988, compiled by Jeffrey Michael Duff.