Names of people enslaved in Virginia, pulled from some of the
Virginia Historical Society ’s 8 million documents, have been
compiled into Unknown No Longer, a searchable database now
available to the public. The online tool includes more than
1,500 names found in letters, wills, court records and other
sources. Each name is connected to a digital copy of the
original document in which it was found. Society spokeswoman
Jennifer Guild said the work of extracting the information began
more than a year ago. “It is possible these names have never
been seen before,” she said. “This is the first time we have
published them.” The database can be searched by keywords such
as name, occupation and plantation. “For instance, if all you
knew was your great-great-great-grandmother was named Ann and
she had been a slave in Virginia, that is enough to begin a
search with this database,” Guild said. “Or, if all you have is
a plantation name, you go to that name and you will find what we
have on the slaves who lived there.” It