Because of incomplete records or categorization errors, those searching for black or Native American ancestors may hit a wall. Slave records often were incomplete, and American Indians often were described as negro or black.

The Virginia Historical Society recently launched Unknown No Longer, a database of Virginia slave names. The database builds on work of the Historical Society’s “Guide to African American Manuscripts.”

A grant from Dominion Resources and the Dominion Foundation is helping fund the indexing project, which will take years. So far, about 2,000 names and digital images of hundreds of documents linked to those names are in the database, which is available for free at www.vahistorical.org.

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 20, 2011