10 million names project

Question

The latest issue of American Ancestors magazine is mostly given over to introducing the ambitious 10 Million Names Project, which “proposes to recover the names of the ten million people enslaved in America, and to restore those names to their families and to history.”

More at 

https://10millionnames.org/

Answer 1

I watched the broadcast and my first thought was, "Why can't they collaborate with WT?"

Comments

Why can't there be a collaboration? From the 10 Million Names FAQ:

Who is responsible for 10 Million Names?

American Ancestors, a nonprofit center for the study of family history, heritage, and culture, founded in 1845—the country’s oldest genealogical institution—has undertaken this project in collaboration with organizations, individuals, and scholars dedicated to African American history and genealogy. Collaborative partners include the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, FamilySearch, the New Bedford Historical Society, and Daughters of the American Revolution. We are actively welcoming new partners.

Answer 2

WikiTree's US Black Heritage Project is already doing this work. We'll see who gets to 10 million people first :-)

Comments

*rolls up sleeves*

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How many people have you added til now?

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Our number as of this week is 226,808 profiles. 52,783 (as of July 1) of those profiles are from the time of slavery. This represents three years worth of work.

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So it’s to be competition rather than collaboration? The link has a place to “join as a collaborating organization.” But friendly competition can spur productivity by all parties.

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Barry, the problem is we are genealogists, they are historians. The focus of our work is very different. Our goal is to not only process all the slavery documents, but to take the next step to build a family tree for every Black American from those documents. We are very happy for them to collaborate with us by sharing the documents they process.

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The second part of their mission statement, "to restore those names to their families..." would require producing family trees. So it sounds like their goal does encompass genealogy. But perhaps their net is so wide that, as you say, it is not reasonable to genealogy a "focus." It would be awesome if they could be persuaded to make Wikitree the primary hub for the genealogical portion of the project, but I see links to FamilySearch already on the site.

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I'm holding judgement until we see any of the work they produce, but since they don't have a single genealogist on their main staff (100% historians or history professors), I'm finding it hard to believe they'll be accomplishing this second goal.

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Fair enough. I figured that being so prominently placed in AmericanAncestors magazine meant they would get help from NEHGS people, sort of like how Dr.Gates’s program does. But maybe that’s not right, and the magazine was just drawing attention to a new project.

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I think it's incorrect to say they don't have staff genealogists.

10 Million Names is an initiative of the New England Historic Genealogical Society I've spoken with NEHGS's Lindsay Fulton (and 10 Million Names staff member), and she is a top-rate genealogist. Also, Danielle Rose has an excellent instructive video on researching Black Patriot and Loyalist Revolutionary War Soldiers on the NEHGS's YouTube channel.

https://10millionnames.org/staff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoXxuBt33uI

I expect this work to be comparable to the NEHGS's work with the Georgetown University GU272.

https://gu272.americanancestors.org/

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I’m attending their August 24th webinar and will find out more then. 

https://www.americanancestors.org/events/introducing-10-million-names-project

Answer 3

Interesting. I searched for Betty Kinney in the 1830 Census and found her. To view it, I'd have to pay a membership fee, which I won't do until I learn more about what they offer.

I also noticed on the home page "Chat With A Generalogis - Free."

Comments

Paul, you have more info about Betty Kinney than what anyone can see on their website right now.

Not sure what the membership fee is but I imagine it's comparable to Ancestry. By the way, a two hour session with a genealogist is $350.

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WikiTree has the USBH Family Builders Team - who are experienced US Black Heritage researchers who create family trees from scratch or take existing trees out to the next generation(s) for WikiTree members with Black heritage.  link explains process.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:US_Black_Heritage_Family_Builders_Team