Funding news! New digital resource to provide guidance on family history research and community engagement
The Mixed Museum has been awarded funding from Anglia Ruskin University to develop practical guidance for genealogy practitioners working with people tracing their African American ancestry. Building on our Reclaiming History Through Science DNA project with the ‘brown babies’ community, this new digital resource will translate lived experience into accessible resources for the genealogy and heritage sectors — with a particular focus on ethical practice, care and co-creation.
Guidance on supporting people with African American ancestry on family search journeys
The Mixed Museum has been awarded funding to create new guidance for museums, genealogy practitioners and family history networks on working with people with Black American ancestry.
In 2025, the museum worked collaboratively with a group of ‘brown babies’ – those born to Black American soldiers based in Britain and white British women – and their descendants on the Reclaiming History Through Science project, which explored the role of DNA testing in their lives.
This new funding from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) will allow TMM and project partner Professor Lucy Bland to work with The Mixed Museum’s Scientist-In-Residence, genealogist Dr Sophie Kay, and the museum's ‘brown babies’ network to create free and accessible guidance using lessons learned from that project. The new project will result in a small digital resource hosted on TMM’s website featuring:
• A list of practical recommendations by Dr Kay, aimed at genealogy practitioners supporting people with African American ancestry.
• A co-authored publication by Professor Bland and TMM, aimed at heritage practitioners working co-creatively with marginalised communities.
• Clips of interviews with participants in the Reclaiming History Through Science sharing first-hand experiences
The outputs aim to stimulate reflections on working equitably with members of communities whose histories have been fragmented, marginalised or silenced, as well as trauma-affected.
Putting lived experience at the centre
Dr Chamion Caballero, TMM’s director, said: “We have had so much interest in our Reclaiming History Through Science project, which was selected as one of the Mindsets + Missions case studies. As such we are delighted to be able to share more insights into our learning via this new resource. We hope it will be helpful for genealogy practitioners and museums working with those on family-search journeys, particularly individuals from scattered or trauma-affected communities. DNA testing can open doors to family connection, but it can also open complex emotions. As we have found, practitioners need to be equipped not just with technical knowledge, but with cultural understanding and care. We hope this resource will help ensure that people searching for family are well supported at every stage of that journey.”
Professor Lucy Bland added: “The Reclaiming History Through Science project showed how powerful – and complex – DNA testing can be for people whose family histories were shaped by stigma and silence. Translating those insights into guidance for the heritage and genealogy sectors feels like an important next step.”
Reclaiming History Through Science was funded by the Museum Association’s Mindsets + Missions programme, which aimed to boost engagement with communities described as being ‘underrepresented’ in science engagement and learning. TMM’s ‘brown babies’ group first met online in October 2023, and some of the more than 30 family members who joined had never previously met others with the same shared history. What emerged was not only a greater understanding of genetics, but a powerful sense of connection.
The group has since spent more than two years meeting formally in facilitated and informal online and in-person sessions. It has also expanded in size. The project has created a growing network that now spans the UK, mainland Europe, North and South America and Australia, and includes participants aged between 21 and 82. A collection of video interviews from the project on TMM’s YouTube channel have reached over 700k views, and team and network members are continually engaging in new and creative ways to share the ‘brown babies’ history and bring the science of DNA testing to new audiences.
Importantly, the project demonstrated what meaningful co-creation can look like in practice. Participants were not subjects of research but active collaborators: leading and shaping discussions, influencing focus and outputs, and identifying the kinds of support they wished had been available to them earlier.
The ARU-funded project will allow lessons from the Reclaiming History Through Science project – including from the bespoke ‘understanding the science of DNA’ workshops led by Dr Kay – to be made public. The final recommendations created for the digital resource will be shaped by several community co-creation and validation workshops with the group, ensuring they continue to reflect participants’ lived experiences.
From research to sector impact
The final outputs — the publication and practitioner guidance — will be available as free downloadable PDFs via TMM’s digital resource. The project will be launched in early summer 2026, alongside a webinar hosted by ARU aimed at the heritage and genealogy sectors.
Beyond the immediate focus on African American ancestry research, the project also speaks to wider conversations within the museum and heritage sector about working equitably and sustainably with communities with marginalised histories. By embedding lived experience into practical guidance, TMM, its partners and members of the ‘brown babies’ community aim to make a considered contribution to thoughtful and ethical genealogy and heritage practice.
“The proposed digital learning resource stems directly from the generosity of those within the ‘brown babies’ community who shared their experiences with us," says Dr Caballero. "We are also grateful to ARU for providing us with the opportunity to make the learning from the Reclaiming History Through Science project accessible. We hope the resource will provide meaningful insights and reflections for those across the genealogy and heritage sectors who are looking to strengthen how they support people navigating complex and often emotional family history journeys.”
Learn more
Read our previously published blogpost about the impact of the Reclaiming History Through Science project, “Engaging with communities traditional science organisations may not reach”
Meet our first Scientist-in-Residence, Dr Sophie Kay
Visit our award-winning digital Brown Babies exhibition, curated with Professor Lucy Bland
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