Public Beta · Research in progress
Public Roadmap
Research moves at the speed of the records. This roadmap names direction, not dates — nothing here is a commitment to a schedule, and the order can change when a document turns up.
Live in public beta
Now
- The Living Lineage
- Evidence cases 001–004
- The Evidence Time Machine (beta)
- Where the Branches Meet
- Ask the Archive (beta)
- Open research questions and public contribution
Actively being researched
Next
- More Smith family branches
- Enslaved-community research beyond the named household
- Land and homestead reconstruction
- Expanded mapping of movement and place
Where the archive is headed
Future
- Call the Archive
- Museum and kiosk experiences
- Augmented-reality interpretation
- Classroom and educational experiences
Stated plainly
Known limitations
The research is incomplete
Four evidence cases and two descendant branches are published. Many family lines, and most of the enslaved community around them, are not yet reconstructed.
Some relationships remain under verification
Several parent–child links in the descendant branches carry Under Investigation status. Any relationship computed across those links is reported as provisional.
Some original images cannot be reproduced
Repository rights restrict republication of certain document images. Where that is true, the archive cites the record and shows the transcription instead.
Some family traditions remain uncorroborated
Accounts held in family memory are published as Family Tradition and stay there until an independent record is found.
The Time Machine covers selected years
Anchor years between 1840 and 1910 are interpreted. Intervening years show the record as it stands, without interpretation.
Ask the Archive is beta
It answers from published archive records only. It will decline rather than infer, and it can miss an answer the archive does contain.
Living-person information is intentionally limited
Living people appear only with recorded consent. Without it, the archive shows the relationship and withholds the name.
The fastest way to move something from Next to Now is a record. If you hold family papers, photographs, cemetery or church information, or an account passed down, please send it to the archive. Current version: Public Beta · Version 0.1.