Stacy Ashmore Cole

Stacy Ashmore Cole is the creator and curator of the TheyHadNames.net website, which documents the names of African Americans, enslaved and free, in antebellum Liberty County, Georgia. The website has more than 30,000 names and includes wills, estate inventories, bills of sale, marriage contracts, chattel mortgages, and church records, among others. As a descendant of a slaveholding family in Liberty County, Mrs. Cole was motivated to create this project after observing the challenges faced by descendants of people enslaved by her family in reconstructing their family histories. Mrs. Cole is also president of the Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society, a board member of Liberty County’s Midway Museum, and a member of UJIMA Genealogy of Coastal Georgia. She retired from the U.S. Federal Government in 2014, and currently lives in Brunswick, Georgia.