Two genealogy sites are adding troves of historical materials about enslaved people in the U.S. to databases, which could give many of their descendants a fuller picture of their families' histories.

A decade ago, tracing one’s ancestry was an activity associated with bored and perhaps elderly individuals who had nothing but time and tons of photo albums on their hands. In recent years, it’s ...

Talk with family members and gather names, dates and places, advised Long Island genealogist April Lynne Earle.