Ancestry’s New AI Search Tool Unlocks Records Of 183,000 Enslaved People

Ancestry.com has released a new collection of newspaper articles related to more than 183,000 enslaved people in the US.

The collection is free to access and leverages an AI-powered search tool to provide millions of descendants of formerly enslaved individuals with unprecedented access to detailed historical records.  

Never-before-seen records

Ancestry’s “Articles of Enslavement” collection comprises approximately 38,000 newspaper articles dating from 1788 to 1867.

Many of these original newspaper articles contain never-before-seen information about enslaved individuals and fill gaps in historical records where courthouse and community documents have been lost or destroyed.

These records include enslaved individuals’ names, ages, physical descriptions, and locations.

“Family history research can be challenging for Black Americans due to the long history of slavery in the United States and the lack of documentation about those who were enslaved,” said Nicka Sewell-Smith, professional genealogist and Senior Story Producer at Ancestry.

“Exploring the articles in the context of their original publication can help us understand more about how slavery shaped everyday life in the United States and can help descendants of previously enslaved people unearth key discoveries about their family history.”

AI-powered search

Ancestry has also leveraged AI to make the records easily searchable, Axios reports, even connecting names in Ancestry’s other databases.

“Greater access to these records on Ancestry will enhance understanding of how chattel slavery and the forced movement of enslaved people became normalized in the United States,” shared Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College.

Ancestry’s new collection complements its existing resources, which include over 18 million records documenting the lives of formerly enslaved or newly emancipated individuals.

This includes Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedman’s Bank records and select US Federal Census documents.

Image credit: Nicka Sewell-Smith