Even long after emancipation, African Americans faced a major challenge in reuniting families who had been separated under slavery. Once they were recognized as citizens, African Americans had more options available to them to reinforce and reunite their families. They registered their marriages before local governments and other organizations, such as the Freedmen’s Bureau and the U.S. Army, and they made extraordinary efforts to locate loved ones. Some purchased newspaper advertisements, and others traveled hundreds of miles in hopes of relocating loved ones, a difficult and sometimes fruitless task. The two advertisements here, published in the Christian Recorder of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, highlight how families were separated by their enslavers and the difficulty they had in finding and reuniting with their loved ones.