Nearly 4m records of enslaved people in 20 former British colonies now searchable online
Nearly 4 million records documenting the lives of enslaved people across 20 former British colonies are now searchable online. The collection contains 300,000 digitised pages covering countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad, following a project by Ancestry and University College London’s Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.
Nearly 4 million records documenting the lives of enslaved people across 20 former British colonies have been made searchable online for the first time.
Genealogy company Ancestry digitised and indexed the collection in partnership with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London.
The collection contains 300,000 pages recording lives in countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
Who determined which records were included in the searchable collection?
What barriers could still prevent people from accessing or interpreting the records?
How might descendants and researchers use the newly searchable material?
What information may remain absent from the digitised collection?
YOUR QUESTION
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GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · AUGUST 2026