Anyone who is conducting or has conducted "broad surveys of a specific slave community/population, based on geography, heritage, or any other common factor" in former slaveholding states, and who specifically was able to link enslaved identity to post-emancipation identity, may be interested in responding to the survey linked below. The survey is particularly seeking quantifiable research on ways in which freedpeople selected surnames and regional variations in surname selection criteria.

This survey grew from a debate between some researchers that seemed to point to significant regional variations in surname-selection.

Discussion and survey link at:

http://bit.ly/13U1kG