Michelle Bryant wants to learn more about herself and her ancestors.

A nine-year resident of Gilpin Court, Ms. Bryant has lived with a limited understanding of her ancestry for much of her life, only able to identify her grandparents on her father’s side of her family and great-grandparents on her mother’s side. Little else information about her ancestors is available to her, she said.

On Saturday, Aug. 19, however, she will get more insight into her family and their history — and she’s eager to learn what has been uncovered.

Ms. Bryant is one of nine Gilpin Court residents whose ancestry has been researched over an eight-month period as part of Reclaiming Our Time, a genealogy project that is intended to uncover lost stories and connections and bring greater personal understanding to its participants.

“Honestly, I was very curious,” Ms. Bryant said when asked why she agreed to be part of the project. “You can never know where you’re going in life unless you know where you’ve been.”

Reclaiming Our Time is directed by Dr. Paula D. Royster, founder and CEO of The Center for African American Genea- logical Research, a nonprofit based in Fredericksburg focused on the reclamation and preser- vation of Black history that has been lost or underserved.

During a Gilpin Court Community Day event last October, 10 residents were recruited to be a part of the project. The final group of participants include Ms. Bryant, Charmain Barbour Brown, Janis Anderson, Vincent Brown, Bonita Gilbert, Eric Clay, Blanche Rodwell, Melissa Jeffries and Carolyn Cotman.

Dr. Royster’s goal is to provide a source of personal validation and motivation to participating residents, inspiring them to “move beyond Gilpin,” a desire she said was shared with her by some of the neighborhood’s generational residents during the project.

“My hope is that, by example, they will see the greatness in their ancestors and own it for themselves,” Dr. Royster said. “They aspire to be more than invisible. I hope to show them that they can be more.”

Dr. Royster had investigated and identified the ancestry of 10 of the oldest Black families in Fredericksburg across two years as part of a previous Reclaiming Our Time project. The results of that project were shared last year with participants in the city, with the ultimate goal of expanding understanding of the history of African-Americans in Fredericksburg.

It was this project that led Reggie Gor- don, formerly Richmond’s deputy chief administrative officer for the city’s Office of Human Services, to suggest she start a similar project in Richmond when she reached out to discuss her genealogical work with him. Mr. Gordon’s oversight included the departments of Social Services, Justice Services and the Office of Community Wealth Building.

“I think it’s important for us to expand the narrative about people who live in our

communities,” said Mr. Gordon, who now is president and CEO of the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation. “Everyone has dignity and an important story to tell as part of our Richmond story, as part of our national story, global story.”

For Ms. Brown, also a nine-year resident of Gilpin Court, she was inspired to join the project to uncover potential health issues in her family in order to address them and help ensure her a long and healthy life.

“I wanted to go back and start looking at my family for my health,” Ms. Brown said. “I was looking for a little bit of a fountain of youth within my own family.”

Dr. Royster’s research for the project used a combination of DNA samples and other contributions from participants, along with research into various historical records, similar to her work in Fredericksburg. Across eight months, she researched local documents at the Richmond Public Library and information on enslaved and free Black Virginians pulled from the Unknown No Longer collection at the Library of Virginia.

Utilizing colonial records, deeds, burial records and textbooks focused on Black history, Dr. Royster has identified historical connections for participants reaching back centuries, with some dating as far back to the 1700s. She also accumulated historical data that participants can use to further research their own personal history, including DNA analysis.

“I hope to see that the contributions that their ancestors made in shaping this nation were not small,” Dr. Royster said.

Dr. Royster’s work has not been without its challenges as initial struggles to maintain contact with participants did not always pan out. Some participants also had less knowledge of their families and less information about their personal history to provide.

Despite these issues, the results of Dr. Royster’s research will be shared with participating residents Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Virginia Musuem of History and Culture in the Robins Family Forum.

Participants such as Ms. Bryant are excited.

“I very much look forward to being able to acquire this information and being able to teach my children their history,” Ms. Bryant said, “and hopefully instilling in them the importance of that knowledge so that it could continue to be passed on from generation to generation.”

Reservations for the unveiling is free and available at https://tinyurl.com/mry5vbjr.