10 Million Names Project Wins 2025 Shirley Barnes Records Access Award

October 31, 2025, Manchester, NH – Danielle Rose, Manager of Volunteers at the 10 Million Names Project, accepted the 2025 Shirley Barnes Records Access Award from Susan O’Connor, President of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC), at a luncheon held at the 2025 New England Regional Genealogical Conference in Manchester, New Hampshire. 

To learn more about the award, please check out our page devoted to it at Shirley Barnes Records Access Award.

Federal budget tightening has meant less support for humanities and archival projects at the state and local level both now and in the future. In this environment, providing research materials to genealogists is challenging. This year the MGC board decided to recognize a project which excels in leveraging collaboration to create a virtual research center at 10MillionNames.org, hosted and supported by American Ancestors.

The 10 Million Names Project benefits from seed money provided by individuals and organizations in increments from $50,000 to $1,000,000. It benefits from collaborators such as ABC News, the Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society, the California Genealogical Society, the Community Foundation for the Virgin Islands, the Daughters of the American Revolution, FamilySearch, Famous Kin, Fordham University Press, the Georgetown Memory Project, Godfrey Memorial Library, HEARTS, the Heritage Library Foundation, Historic Sotterley, Howard University, the International African American Museum, the New Bedford Free Public Library, the New Bedford Historical Society, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Newport Historical Society, the Northeast Slavery Records Index, the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, the Prince Project, Reckoning Inc., the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the Slave Legacy History Coalition, the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, and the White House Historical Association. Two councils provide advice, the Scholars’ Council and the Genealogists’ Council, each including recognized experts.  

The site focuses on researching enslaved individuals and families. Five projects are keystones: plantation records; mariners, migrants, and freedom seekers; military records; Black institutional records; and first-person accounts of enslavement. Projects underway now include work on Black patriots recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution; research on the freed settlers of Port Royal; collections of names of enslaved people from county deeds; and an effort to fully document the 200,000 men who fought in the Civil War in the U.S. Colored Troops.

At its annual meeting in 2019, the Massachusetts Genealogical Council established an award to be given yearly in memory of Shirley M. (Armstrong) Barnes. Shirley was committed to advocating for record preservation and access. Her work brought about the 1983 Massachusetts vital records law which mandated the transfer of vital records to the state archives in five-year intervals. The award recognizes people who emulate Shirley's volunteer spirit and whose dedication to records access has made a significant impact for genealogists.

The Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) was founded in 1980 to focus on preserving records at the Massachusetts state archives and the need for legislation to ensure this. Today MGC is an umbrella organization representing Massachusetts genealogists, historical societies, and individuals concerned about records preservation and free and unfettered access to civil records. We do that by paying attention to government agencies and legislation impacting genealogists and by providing innovative educational opportunities for Massachusetts genealogists.