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title: "The Names of Nearly 4 Million Enslaved People in Former British Colonies Are Now Searchable Online, Helping Descendants Find Lost Ancestors"
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# The Names of Nearly 4 Million Enslaved People in Former British Colonies Are Now Searchable Online, Helping Descendants Find Lost Ancestors

Source: https://www.openculture.com/2026/10/names-of-nearly-4-million-enslaved-people-in-former-british-colonies-are-searchable-online.html (www.openculture.com)

## Claim 1 — Corroborated

> The Names of Nearly 4 Million Enslaved People in Former British Colonies Are Now Searchable Online, Helping Descendants Find Lost Ancestors

- [www.tbsnews.net](https://www.tbsnews.net/world/digital-archive-makes-millions-records-enslaved-people-searchable-1555706) — context — "Nearly 4 million records of enslaved people across 20 former British colonies have been made searchable online for the first time through a landmark digital archive."
- [www.ucl.ac.uk](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/sep/nearly-4m-records-related-enslaved-people-former-british-colonies-made-available-online-0) — supports — "The UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (CSLBS) has partnered with Ancestry to digitise and make searchable nearly 4 million records of people enslaved in the 19th century."
- [thegrio.com](https://thegrio.com/2026/09/24/ancestry-free-enslavement-records-british-colonies) — supports — "Ancestry has made nearly 4 million enslavement records searchable for free, giving descendants across the African diaspora another way to trace family connections and recover ancestors’ names."

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:13:59.999Z unverified · initial · [system]
- 2026-10-14T00:18:57.055Z unverified → corroborated · l3_supports · [system]

## Claim 2 — Unverified

> in History | October 13th, 2026 Leave a Comment

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:00.798Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 3 — Unverified

> A few years ago, we fea­tured here on Open Cul­ture the Freedmen’s Bureau Project data­base, which con­tains search­able infor­ma­tion on for­mer­ly enslaved peo­ple in the Unit­ed States after its Civ­il War.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:01.586Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 4 — Unverified

> With near­ly 1.8 mil­lion men, women, and chil­dren reg­is­tered there when it first opened to the pub­lic, it has remained a valu­able resource for many Amer­i­cans research­ing their own her­itage, not just descen­dants of for­mer slaves but of oth­er Civ­il War refugees as well.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:02.382Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 5 — Unverified

> But of course, the U.S. was hard­ly the only coun­try where slav­ery exist­ed.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:03.170Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 6 — Corroborated

> Launched by a part­ner­ship between the geneal­o­gy com­pa­ny Ances­try and the Cen­tre for the Study of the Lega­cies of British Slav­ery at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don, the online For­mer British Colonies Enslave­ment Reg­is­ters makes avail­able records on near­ly four mil­lion indi­vid­u­als enslaved between 1813 and 1840 in a host of coun­tries from the Bahamas to Mau­ri­tius to South Africa.

- [www.ucl.ac.uk](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/sep/nearly-4m-records-related-enslaved-people-former-british-colonies-made-available-online-0) — supports — "They document enslaved individuals from 20 former British colonies between 1813–1840 and represent the most comprehensive records of enslaved populations during the British Empire."

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:03.972Z unverified · initial · [system]
- 2026-10-14T00:19:01.105Z unverified → corroborated · l3_supports · [system]

## Claim 7 — Not auto-checked

> In the video above, geneal­o­gist and Ances­try Senior Sto­ry Pro­duc­er Nic­ka Sewell-Smith pro­vides an intro­duc­tion to the For­mer British Colonies Enslave­ment Reg­is­ters, which you can access here.

Not auto-checked: this sentence names a private individual or small business, so no automated status is given. Evidence only.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:04.774Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 8 — Unverified

> The mod­ern descen­dants of peo­ple enslaved in the 20 coun­tries cov­ered by the data­base by no means live exclu­sive­ly, or even pri­mar­i­ly, in those coun­tries or in Great Britain itself.

- [www.ucl.ac.uk](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/sep/nearly-4m-records-related-enslaved-people-former-british-colonies-made-available-online-0) — context — "They document enslaved individuals from 20 former British colonies between 1813–1840 and represent the most comprehensive records of enslaved populations during the British Empire."
- [thegrio.com](https://thegrio.com/2026/09/24/ancestry-free-enslavement-records-british-colonies) — context — "The collection documents enslaved people across 20 former British colonies between 1813 and 1840."
- [www.tbsnews.net](https://www.tbsnews.net/world/digital-archive-makes-millions-records-enslaved-people-searchable-1555706) — context — "Nearly 4 million records of enslaved people across 20 former British colonies have been made searchable online for the first time through a landmark digital archive."

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:05.573Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 9 — Unverified

> The Atlantic Slave Trade Visu­al­ized in Two Min­utes: 10 Mil­lion Lives, 20,000 Voy­ages, Over 315 Years

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:06.369Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 10 — Unverified

> The Names of 1.8 Mil­lion Eman­ci­pat­ed Slaves Are Now Search­able in the World’s Largest Genealog­i­cal Data­base, Help­ing African Amer­i­cans Find Lost Ances­tors

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:07.162Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 11 — Unverified

> 1.5 Mil­lion Slav­ery Era Doc­u­ments Will Be Dig­i­tized, Help­ing African Amer­i­cans to Learn About Their Lost Ances­tors

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:07.962Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 12 — Unverified

> Visu­al­iz­ing Slav­ery: The Map Abra­ham Lin­coln Spent Hours Study­ing Dur­ing the Civ­il War

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:08.747Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 13 — Corroborated

> Hear the Voic­es of Amer­i­cans Born in Slav­ery: The Library of Con­gress Fea­tures 23 Audio Inter­views with For­mer­ly Enslaved Peo­ple (1932–75)

- [www.harlemworldmagazine.com](https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/the-voices-of-slavery-audio-interviews-with-formerly-enslaved-americans-1932-75) — supports — "The Voices Of Slavery, Audio Interviews With Formerly Enslaved Americans (1932-75)"

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:09.547Z unverified · initial · [system]
- 2026-10-14T00:19:06.692Z unverified → corroborated · l3_supports · [system]

## Claim 14 — Unverified

> The Civ­il War and Recon­struc­tion: A Free Course

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:10.334Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 15 — Not auto-checked

> Based in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture.

Not auto-checked: this sentence names a private individual or small business, so no automated status is given. Evidence only.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:11.132Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 16 — Not auto-checked

> He’s the author of the newslet­ter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Sum­ma­riz­ing Korea) and Kore­an Newtro.

Not auto-checked: this sentence names a private individual or small business, so no automated status is given. Evidence only.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:11.923Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 17 — Not auto-checked

> Fol­low him on the social net­work for­mer­ly known as Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.

Not auto-checked: this sentence names a private individual or small business, so no automated status is given. Evidence only.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:12.722Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 18 — Unverified

> To sup­port Open Cul­ture’s edu­ca­tion­al mis­sion, please con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion.

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:13.510Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 19 — Unverified

> We accept Pay­Pal, Ven­mo (@openculture), Patre­on and Cryp­to!

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:14.302Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 20 — Unverified

> You can use Paypal, Venmo, Patreon, even Crypto!

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:15.084Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 21 — Unverified

> David Foster Wallace Stories & Essays

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:15.855Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 22 — Unverified

> Great Gatsby & Other Fitzgerald Novels

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:16.638Z unverified · initial · [system]

## Claim 23 — Corroborated

> Open Culture scours the web for the best educational media.

- [media-and-learning.eu](https://media-and-learning.eu/open-culture-a-treasure-trove) — supports — "Not an app, but a resource like the cave of Ali Baba: Open Culture helps you find high-quality cultural and educational media."

History:
- 2026-10-14T00:14:17.422Z unverified · initial · [system]
- 2026-10-14T00:19:13.336Z unverified → corroborated · l3_supports · [system]