Finding records of ancestors who suffered through the bonds of slavery can be especially challenging, but at least one online database offers an unbelieveable amount of information for enslaved people of African ancestry who once called Louisiana home, even before it was a state.

This incredible resource is a database that was 15 years in the making, and is now available for free at ibiblio.org, a website described as a “collection of collections” of everything from software to cultural studies.

The Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy 1718 - 1820 database holds information about 100,000 slaves who were brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is searchable by name, master’s name, gender, epoch, racial designation, plantation location and origin. Information that can be found on individuals includes occupations, illnesses, family relationships, prices paid by slave owners, and slaves’ testimony and emancipations.