Family Lineage Research
Careful, sourced tracing of family lines through census records, county archives, plantation records, church registers, freedmen bureau records, DNA context, and family testimony.
In development
Our Work
Six pillars. One inheritance.
Our work is organized around the disciplines required to recover Black American lineage with the care and rigor it deserves — research, records, testimony, archives, community, and education.
Freedmen Documentation
Recovery, indexing, and interpretation of Freedmen's Bureau records, apprenticeship records, marriage records, labor contracts, and post-emancipation registries.
In development
Oral History Preservation
Structured recording, transcription, and archival of family and community oral histories, so that testimony that has always lived in memory can live in the record as well.
In development
Digital Family Archives
Secure, family-controlled digital archives for photographs, documents, letters, and stories — held for the family, passed down to the next generation.
In development
Community Heritage Projects
Partnerships with churches, historical societies, cemeteries, and municipalities to document Black communities, burial grounds, and landmarks at risk of being lost.
In development
Educator & Institutional Partnerships
Curriculum support, research collaboration, and institutional partnerships with universities, museums, libraries, and K-12 educators serving Black American history.
In development
All six pillars are in active planning. As programs open for participation, each will be published here with its own detail page, eligibility, and enrollment instructions. Nothing on this site should be read as an active service until it is marked open.
Our Standard of Care
Rigor, respect, and permanence.
Every record we recover is sourced. Every story we preserve is held with the consent of the family that carries it. Every archive we build is designed to outlast us.
The Institute treats Black American history not as a project of the moment, but as an inheritance that must be handled with the seriousness of any national archive.