- We will never know everything about the past.
However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.
- Forging a connection to your family history
is one of the most powerful journeys
a person can undertake.
- This actually is what helped me
to discover my grandfather.
- To put your family history together,
you're putting together a puzzle.
- But humanity is in a race against time
to preserve the legacies of the past,
because the lived stories of millions of people
are at risk of vanishing forever.
But the digital revolution has given us new tools to
preserve knowledge and artifacts
for future generations.
By looking back in time,
we can set ourselves up
for a journey that can help cement a sense of identity
and a belonging.
- The forgotten hero.
Wow.
That's crazy.
- So these are my parents in the seventies.
You can tell from the Afros and the sepia tone.
I am the self-proclaimed family historian.
For me,
I'm a multiracial Black woman
and I just was always curious
how did I end up here?
I think that a lot of our history sometimes
is put into this box of Black people were slaves.
Then they were free and now we're here,
but there's so much more to us than just the struggle.
So understanding your history,
sort of fleshes out this experience that we have,
instead of keeping it limited to
just slavery and oppression.
- Particularly for people of African descent,
their records have not been prioritized for centuries
and thus, stories end up lost,
unless we find records that actually tell those stories.
- But cemeteries provide a way forward.
Eden is one of the oldest
Black-owned cemetery companies in America.
Cemeteries are more than just a place
where we bury our loved ones.
They are an archive of human experiences.
- It's like walking through a book
of Philadelphia's Black history.
So you think about the Revolutionary War in Philadelphia.
You've got folks at Eden Cemetery
who were affiliated with that.
You think about the Civil War.
You think about civil rights movement.
Do you think about entertainment.
You think about religion.
You think about people in congress.
All of these people are buried at Eden Cemetery.
Black genealogy is American history.
When we reclaim these stories,
we are creating a new documentary record for this nation,
so that these stories can be incorporated
and hopefully so that they will never be forgotten again.
I remember going online and thinking,
well, how are people gonna learn
about all of these amazing folks
who were buried at Eden Cemetery?
And so I ended up proposing
to the African American Genealogy Group
and Eden Cemetery that we work together,
so that Eden's records could be made available online.
- There were a couple of phases.
The first one was to go through the section books.
Everybody that's buried there is in a book for that section.
We put that information into a spreadsheet,
so that the books could be retired.
Once the spreadsheets were done,
we match them with photos
and then upload it to Ancestry.
- That way, no matter where you are in the world,
you can just search for their name and find them.
- Well, let's start with the interment book.
There's a little looseness here to the cover.
The leaves are in fairly good condition.
There's not a lot of tears here.
So I think this,
this could be easily digitized.
- First we'll set up the imaging studio
and then we'll bring the item out of the secure vault.
We'll set up the shot,
we take the picture,
and then we will process out the files.
The metadata,
as it is put into a program like Ancestry,
that's kind of the most important part of
wrapping up a digitization project,
making sure all of that relevant information
that people might be searching for
is there to just type in and find.
- I've been doing Ancestry for a number of years.
It may lead me to pictures and dates,
a biography and a story,
as opposed to just data.
There's this moment of,
I know nothing to
(sighs) that's where I come from.
- [Man] So we're about to go on a bit of
a family history journey
to discover one of your oldest ancestors
who lived here in Philadelphia.
- My foot is like shaking right now with excitement.
This is so exciting.
Okay, so William Thomas Catto,
born 1810.
So this is my five times grandfather.
Oh, wow.
As soon as I answered William Catto,
I've got a hint.
Octavius is, I believe,
one of the names of William's sons.
So Octavius Valentine Catto,
born February 1839 in Charleston, South Carolina.
It looks like Octavius is my five times great uncle.
The forgotten hero.
This is what is on his tombstone.
Prominent scholar and dominant leader
in the civil rights movement.
Wow.
That's crazy.
This is so amazing.
Burial place says Eden Cemetery.
- [Man] Well, it's in Philadelphia.
You wanna go see it in person?
- I absolutely wanna go see it in person.
Octavius Catto is one of the most amazing men
of the 19th century in Philadelphia.
- He's linked to nearly every important Black movement
of his time.
Catto joined forces with Frederick Douglas
to raise 11 regiments of the United States colored troops
during the Civil War.
After the Civil War,
Catto campaigned for the ratification
of the reconstruction amendments,
which ended slavery,
granted Black people citizenship,
and extended universal suffrage to Black men.
Catto successfully led the fight
to desegregate Philadelphia's trolley car system in 1867.
But his life was cut tragically short.
On election day,
October 10th, 1871,
a race riot exploded in Philadelphia.
Catto was on his way to quell the riot
and protect Black voters.
He was murdered at the age of 32.
Catto died as he lived,
fighting for the rights of Black people.
- That's what's so important
about African American genealogy.
We have an opportunity to be of service
to people who were of service to us
in ways that we are only beginning to understand.
We've got this opportunity to lift them up
so they're not forgotten again.
Seeing his name in Ancestry,
seeing the cemetery and the headstone
and seeing this,
just touching it.
I just feel this sense of connection.
You know, to know that this is where I come from.
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching.
Ancestry is making it easier than ever
for millions of people
to discover their unique family story.
To go on your own family history journey,
check the links below in the description.