Volunteer

The Kentucky U.S. Colored Troops Project seeks to uncover archival documents about the lives of Kentucky’s formerly enslaved Civil War soldiers and disseminate them through a free, searchable online database. It is a project of the non-profit organization Reckoning, Inc.

We are looking for volunteers to research African American soldiers, going as far back in time as possible through slave schedules, wills, and estate settlements, and as far forward in time as possible, through pension documents, census data, newspapers, and other resources, to create a set of primary source documents for each man and his family, coupled with a detailed family tree. The results of all this research will then be published here on our website and be made freely available to the public.

Per week time commitments are variable, based on other commitments. At least 5-10 hours per week would be ideal. This work would be done remotely using a combination of Slack and Zoom to communicate with project staff.

An ideal volunteer has some experience reading hand-written archival documents and has done at least some genealogical research into their own family. Knowledge of 19th century history, the Civil War, and/or slavery would also be a plus. Lastly, you will need to use a combination of Ancestry.com and Fold3.com to do this work. Your public library may be able to provide free access to one or both of these. If not, we may be able to reimburse you for those expenses if necessary.

You can learn more about volunteering with us by watching the video below. More information about the project can be found here.

If interested in volunteering, please reach out to us using the contact form below.