African Californios.org: Reconstructing the African Past of Spanish & Mexican California

AfricanCalifornios.org is a research project dedicated to highlighting the significant contributions of Afro-descendants in Spanish and Mexican California. Historical colonial census records reveal that 19% of California's population had African ancestry, yet many individuals concealed their identities to enhance their social standing. This project uses modern NLP and Data Science techniques to construct family trees, shedding light on their overlooked stories. The work has been published and presented at the 2024 Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations conference.