The project started three years ago after the Virginia Historical Society started its "Unknown No Longer" database of enslaved Virginians. It prompted the library to look at its collections, which included deeds of emancipation, freedom suits, freedom certificates, newspapers' and coroners' inquisitions. For the past two years, Virginia Untold has indexed more than 100,000 African American names and more than 50,000 digital images. Thousands more documents wait to be digitized and transcribed by volunteers to make them more readable. Editors then go over and proofread them. Crawford said it will take years to go through all of the documents.