In 2007, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia partnered with Family Search and the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) to index the Virginia Freedmen’s Bureau records. The Virginia records were the first state records of this Reconstruction-era federal agency to be indexed. The project was highly successful and there was found to be considerable interest in African-American genealogy in the Richmond area. In March of 2008, as a part of a plan to spotlight African-American genealogy, the board of directors of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, sought to have African-American genealogy as one of the areas of focus for the museum. Over the next two years the museum held multiple genealogy-related programs.