American Ancestors' newest initiative, 10 Million Names, combines the work of historians and genealogists to bring the past to the present. 

It’s a sad fact that identities of people who were enslaved in the United States have historically been obscured, if not completely unreported. But a Boston-based non-profit organization hopes to bridge the gap between living descendants of Africans today and their often forgotten ancestors. 

The long-term goal of American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names project is to recover every name of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children enslaved on the land that became the United States.

American Ancestors is the global brand of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. NEHGS was the first genealogical society in the nation, established in 1845. Their newest initiative, 10 Million Names, combines the work of historians and genealogists to bring the past to the present. 

American Ancestors has shifted to a broader perspective in recent years, moving well beyond New England. Recently, for instance, they worked with Richard Cellini — now a member of the 10 Million Names advisory board — on the Georgetown Memory Project. 

Through their collaboration, the memory project presented the family history of 272 people found on a bill of sale between Jesuit priests of Georgetown University (then Georgetown College) to plantations in Maryland and Louisiana. 

You can read more in an article by Adora Brown published in the boston.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/wfzjn3mp.