基因公司Ancestry与伦敦大学学院英国奴隶制遗产研究中心合作完成了一项重大数字化工程，将约400万份英国前殖民地奴隶人口档案上线供全球搜索1。这些档案涵盖1813至1840年间20个英属前殖民地的被奴役人士记录，包括巴哈马、巴巴多斯、南非好望角、牙买加、毛里求斯和特立尼达等地1。档案中记录了被奴役人士的姓名、年龄、身体特征和家庭关系等详细信息1。
该档案集合于1807年英国政府废除跨大西洋奴隶贸易后建立1。档案对所有创建Ancestry账户的用户免费开放1。伦敦大学学院的Matthew J Smith教授将其称为"我们拥有的关于英国加勒比和英国殖民世界奴隶制最系统的档案文件集"1。这一举措使全球非洲-加勒比侨民的后代能够便捷地搜索和追溯家族历史。Ancestry公司的Nicka Sewell-Smith表示："当我使用这些记录去发掘我被奴役的祖先时，我正在用它们进行与最初目的不同的用途。我们的产品正在恢复一个人的人性。"1
Approximately 4 million records documenting enslaved individuals across 20 former British colonies have been digitized and made publicly accessible through an online database, marking a significant development in genealogical research and historical documentation 1. The collection, created through a partnership between the genetic genealogy company Ancestry and the University College London Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave Ownership, contains roughly 300,000 pages of archival material spanning the period from 1813 to 1840 1. The records encompass detailed information about enslaved people including their names, ages, physical descriptions, and family relationships across territories such as the Bahamas, Barbados, the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, Jamaica, Mauritius, and Trinidad 1.
The database is available free of charge to anyone who creates an Ancestry account, enabling descendants of enslaved Africans and members of the African-Caribbean diaspora worldwide to search and trace their family histories with unprecedented ease 1. According to Matthew J Smith, a professor cited in the records, this collection represents "the most systematic set of archival documents we have about slavery in the British Caribbean and the British colonial world" 1. The files were originally created by the British government following the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807 1. Nicka Sewell-Smith, commenting on the significance of the project, stated: "When I use these records to unearth my enslaved ancestors, I'm using them for a purpose that was different than what it was initially intended for. Our product is restoring the humanity of a person." 1
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