Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery is a site for genealogists and researchers where they and others can search through incredibly tragic and moving ads former slaves published looking for their lost family members.

Here’s their official description:

Last Seen offers genealogists and researchers a new tool for telling family stories of separation and survival during slavery, emancipation, and Civil War. The site offers easy access to thousands of “Information Wanted” advertisements taken out by former slaves searching for long lost family members. The ads taken out in black newspapers mention family members, often by name, and also by physical description, last seen locations, and at times by the name of a former slave master.

You can help bring this new powerful genealogical tool to life by transcribing these ads!

It seems to me that invitation to transcribe could offer a powerful opportunity for students to begin to grasp the human toll of slavery and, at the same time, contribute to a greater good.

In many ways, it’s similar to another site offering these kinds of crowd-sourced learning avenue – Zooniverse (see “Zooniverse” Is One Of The Coolest Ed Sites On The Web – I Can’t Believe I’m Just Hearing About It!).

Thanks to Clint Smith on Twitter for the tip.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Teach About African-American History.