The Stolen Relations project seeks to illuminate an often hidden history of Indigenous slavery in American history in order to tell a fuller story of settler colonialism and the harms done to Native nations. The project maintains that at the core of this work are the needs of Indigenous communities for whom these histories are about. We thereby also want to emphasize the humanity and relations of those who were stolen, as well as the survival and present-day presence of those communities most affected. Please see our Mission and Values page for our full statement.

We have tried to provide contextualization for terms and concepts in the database in order to remind users that the archives and documents are generally written from the perspective of colonizers and do not reflect Indigenous names, languages, or knowledge. Please feel free to read our full Decolonization Statement.

A lot of behind-the-scenes decisions go into adapting historical documents into a people-centered database. Here are just a few of the primary decisions we made along the way. Each decision has benefits and detractions, we understand.

• Indigenizing and decolonizing: Overall, we followed the lead of our tribal representatives and collaborators regarding terminology, including the decolonizing statements and the controlled vocabulary. These attempts to Indigenize and decolonize remain central to this project.
• Human-centered: As much as possible, we have centered individuals and their stories (instead of documents). We have intentionally tried to represent individuals as humans, situated in a place and time, and connected to communities. Using an automated algorithm to produce a two-sentence biographical summary of each person was part of that attempt.
• Defining slavery: The change of the name of this project to “Stolen Relations” in 2020 at the suggestion of our tribal representatives signaled an intentional turn towards a more capacious understanding of community loss that enslavement and other forms of removing people from communities entailed. Although some Native peoples were subjected to paradigmatic lifelong, heritable chattel plantation slavery, they were also caught up in myriad other forms of servitude. This included term-limited slavery (for a set number of years); ambiguous “servitude” that was sometimes for a particular number of years; indentures (which could be imposed by officials or forced by parents in dire circumstances, or even seemingly voluntary); enslavement for crimes; enslavement for debt; and other forms of being “bound out.” These nebulous forms of servitude persisted into the last half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century if we include forced boarding school attendance and the labor required of Native students each day. The database contains a wide array of forms of servitude, slavery, and unfreedom as a result—more than users might expect.
• Defining race: One of the most challenge series of conversations in creating the entry form for the database was how to decide who to include. Archival materials often suppressed Native identities in various ways, using racialized terminology that cast doubt on individual’s Indigeneity and therefore make them more enslaveable. To try to counteract the bias of the archive, we have been broadly inclusive, looking for any hints of Indigenous identity. This incudes individuals who were called “Indian” in the sources, of course, but also others who or were called “negro” or “slave” but were identified with “Indian” characteristics such as language or hair. Multi-racial “Indians” have also been included, in a specific departure from much of the historical literature that, too, does not see these individuals as fully Indigenous. We feel the archives—and scholars—have previously overlooked great numbers of Native people in slavery and servitude.
• Transcriptions: We have tried to return to the primary sources in most (but not all) cases and to provide direct transcriptions and images of the documents when possible. By retaining the original language of the documents in the transcriptions (which are searchable), we have ensured that researchers can search for more specific details they seek (even though we have simplified the racial categories in the database; see the Controlled Vocabulary section below for more details).
• Determining what to catalog: Although it was challenging to make this determination, we decided early on to only catalog (or create categories in the database) for certain kinds of information, in part to keep the interface more manageable. There is so much more that could have been tabulated, however, such as clothing, scarification, monetary values, etc. This information is still contained in the transcriptions and is still searchable.
• Relationships: The database is built in a “relational” environment, meaning we intend to keep track of people and their relationships across entries (something that is part of a post-launch phase two). For now, within documents we track the relationships of various people to each other.

The Stolen Relations project recognizes that, even as it collaborates to recover hidden histories of settler colonialism and sensitively present them to the public, as a digital project, it is also tied to larger structures and processes that continue to cause harm in the present. Even as digital technologies present us with an opportunity to share these histories widely, they are implicated in modern-day colonialism. We resonate with the insightful digital acknowledgement and call to action by Adrienne Wong of SpiderWebShow: 

“Since our activities are shared digitally on the internet, let’s also take a moment to consider the legacy of colonization embedded within the technologies, structures, and ways of thinking we use every day. We are using equipment and high-speed internet not available in many indigenous communities. Even the technologies central to much of the art we make leave significant carbon footprints, contributing to changing climates that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples worldwide. I invite you to join me in acknowledging all this and our shared responsibility: to make good of this time, and for each of us to consider our roles in reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship.”

Although we hope for this web-based project to reach communities around the world, we recognize that many team members are situated in the Dawnland, and at Brown University. We want to honor all of our regional Native collaborators and the land that they and their ancestors have stewarded. We also point readers to the Brown University Land Acknowledgement, and its five core commitments:

“Brown University is located in Providence, Rhode Island, on lands that are within the ancestral homelands of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. The Narragansett Indian Tribe, whose ancestors stewarded these lands with great care, continues as a sovereign nation today. We commit to working together to honor our past and build our future with truth.”

Stolen Relations also acknowledges the ongoing struggle for justice that Native Americans continue to face in the United States, as well as Indigenous peoples globally. We urge all nations to uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007). 

In light of these histories and call to action, one of our core values has been reciprocal partnerships with tribal nations. This project has hosted tribal members for summer institutes; hired Native youth for summer internships; created staff positions for Native coordinators and consultants; financially supported the work of Indigenous artists; and applied for grants that directly benefit Native institutions. These relationships, which are ongoing, are an important part of the small but meaningful work of repair. We continue to seek ways to support the sovereignty and activity of our partners and all Native peoples.

Finally, we encourage non-Native users of this website to support the sovereignty and cultural production of Native peoples today, including voting for local and national legislation that benefits Native nations and communities, donating to Native museums and cultural institutions, and purchasing the products of Native artists. Not sure where to start? Feel free to browse the tribal websites of our partners.

 

The Stolen Relations logo was conceptualized and theorized by Brittney Peauwe Wunnepog Walley (Hassanamisco Nipmuc) in early 2025 and designed and executed by Quanah LaRose (Ute), with input from Courtney Akbar (Hassanamisco Nipmuc). The logo was created  to honor those whose relations were stolen, as well as people alive today who have been most affected. 

The logo is rooted in the Northeast Woodland’s traditional artistry, given the origins of this project. One of the original designs featured a four-domed medallion, based on basket artwork designs common to many Native communities in the Northeast. The final logo echoes this idea, with one of the four domes on the left-hand side of the lettering.

(Nipmuc basket, c. 1824. Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.)

The red, “distressed” single dome (semi-circle) paint stroke evokes both this basket-making tradition as well as the violence of colonialism. Red was chosen to acknowledge the rawness and violence of this history, as well as to connect these events to the modern Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement.

The five circles are also drawn from basket-making traditions and are common in regional designs. Here they can be interpreted as individual relatives, relationships made throughout one’s life, or even a broader concept of community. The three colors represent different states that one’s connection to their relations can take when affected by stealing, enslavement, and colonialism: untouched, stolen, and restored. Lastly, the single dome as an incomplete medallion represents “an enduring hope for a more complete truth of this violent history.”

Taken together, the logo represents honesty about the past along with a strong statement of Native resilience into the present.

For more on woodsplint baskets, see:

Version 1.1, April 28, 2025

This document outlines some of the controlled vocabularies used in the project, detailing standardized field labels, allowable values, definitions, and examples of the language as found in the source documents. The vocabulary development combined direct adoption of terms from Enslaved.org to ensure alignment and when they were insufficient to provide the specificity required by the Stolen Relation’s project, they were extended or refined to better suit the dataset’s context and goals. These controlled vocabularies ensure consistency, clarity, and interoperability across the data, supporting both human interpretation and machine processing. 

 

PERSON

Age Category

Age classification of persons, as measured by the number of years since birth.

Infant Age Group: Age category covering period from nursing to walking, or from birth up until but not including 2 years of age. 

• • • Language found in the source documents include a suckling childe and papoose

 

Child Age Group: Age category covering period from walking to puberty, or from 2 up until but not including 14 years of age. 

• • • Language found in the source documents include 12 or 14 [used the smaller integer to assign the age category], a little Indian boy, boy, child, children, girl, little, and young girl

 

Youth / Young Adult Age Group: Age category covering from 14 up until but not including 25 years of age.

• • • Language found in the source documents include 24 or 25 [used the smaller integer to assign the age category], about 14 [used 14 to assign the age category], likely young, young, young adult, young man, and young woman

 

Adult Age Group: Age category covering from 25 up until but not including 40 years of age. 

• • • Language found in the source documents include 30s, about 25 years of age, adult, between 35 and 40 [used the smaller integer to assign the age category], man, near 40 years, and woman

 

Older Person Age Group: Age category covering period from 40 up until 55 years of age.

• • • Language found in the source documents include about 40, and abt 50 years of age

 

Elder Age Group: Age category from 55 onwards.

• • • Language found in the source documents include anchant, elderly, of full age, old, old Indian woman, old wench, and remarkably old

 

Gender

Gender of the human subject derived from the source document.

Female: To indicate that the human subject is female.

Male: To indicate that the human subject is male.

Two-Spirit: To indicate a distinct gender in Indigenous cultures.

 

Occupation

Profession, trade, or vocation of the named person.

Abolitionism: Work involving the organized opposition to involuntary servitude and slaveholder rights, up to and including their total eradication.

Agriculture, Husbandry, and Forestry: Work involving the cultivation of soils or plants; harvest of crops; care of draft animals, livestock, or poultry; and/or the management of trees or forests. Includes farmer, field hand, gleaner, herder, lumberjack, peasant, etc.

Arts and Entertainment: Work involving the creation, circulation, or performance of artistic or creative works and activities.

Banking, Insurance, and Commerce: Work involving the operations of financial and credit institutions such as banks and insurers, and/or medium- to large-scale commercial institutions. Includes broker, wholesaler, and importer-exporter.

Crafts and Trades: Work involving specialized skills, tools, and knowledge. Includes barber, baker, butcher, cabinet or furniture maker, carpenter, cobbler, cook, cooper, dairy maid, distiller, furnace-keeper, hairdresser, leather worker, mason, seamstress or tailor, smith, weaver, woodworker, wright, etc.

Crime: Work involving a livelihood of illegal and extralegal activities. Includes bandit, pirate, slave-stealer, smuggler, thief, etc.

Domestic Service: Work involving the management and care of the home or family of an enslaver, employer, or guardian. Includes butler, coachman, footman, gardener, laundress or starcher, maidservant, messenger, nursemaid, etc. Excludes Midwifery and Wet-nursing.

Fishing, Gathering, and Hunting: Work involving catching fish or shellfish; collecting wild plants; or pursuing animals for food, recreation, or trade.

Government: Work involving state employment or office holding. Includes cabinet minister, civil servant, diplomat, legislator, mayor, or statesman. Excludes Policing and Corrections, Military and Militia, and Public Works.

Hiring: Work involving for-hire labor and service rendered in exchange for cash or credit, managed by an enslaved person, an enslaver, or a guardian. Includes day laborer, jobber, and slave rental (e.g., hireling; escravo de ganho).

Industry: Work involving economic activity concerned with processing of raw materials and/or manufacture of finished goods. Includes mining.

Landowning: Work involving the ownership, cultivation, and profit of real estate, including income from the rent or other use of land, waterways, and improvements. Includes owners of estates, mills, plantations, and ranches.

Legal: Work involving courts of law or the judicial system. Includes clerk, commissioner, interpreter, judge, lawyer, etc. Excludes Policing and Corrections.

Supervision: Work involving the control, management, or oversight of people, labor, or operations. Includes chef or head cook, driver, foreman, majordomo, or overseer.

Manual Labor: Work involving physical strength and stamina, often involving the movement of heavy loads. Includes laborer, ditch-digger, water-carrier, etc.

Maritime: Work involving the operations and supply of seafaring vessels. Includes cabin boy, caulker, captain, chandler, crew, coxswain, sailmaker, shipwright, steward, or whaler. Excludes Slave Trade.

Marketing, Retail, and Trading: Work involving the small-scale sale or exchange of goods and services. Includes but not limited to shopkeeping, street vending, and lodging. Distinct from Banking, Insurance, and Commerce. Excludes Slave Trade.

Medical and Funerary: Work involving the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, or bodily injury; the preparation of medications or cures; or the handling of dead bodies. Includes apothecary, bloodletter, coroner, dentist, grave-digger, healer, herbalist, mortician, nurse, orderly, physician, surgeon, and undertaker.

Midwifery and Wet-nursing: Work involving the birthing, care, and feeding of infants born to others.

Military and Militia: Work involving defense, garrisoning, and acts of war.

Policing and Corrections: Work involving law enforcement and civil order, property protection, bounty hunting, and the pursuit, confinement, and punishment of fugitives, law-breakers, and rebels. Includes jailer, executioner, sheriff, slave-catcher, and warden.

Public Works: Work involving the construction and maintenance of roads, infrastructure, and public spaces or buildings as well as public services such as street illumination and waste removal.

Religious: Work involving beliefs, operations, or worship in a denomination, faith, or spiritual community. Includes cleric, initiate, shaman, and a lay or regular member of a religious order.

Slave Trade: Work involving the apprehension and detention, exchange or sale, or transport of enslaved people.

Teaching: Work involving the transfer of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits in a formal or informal setting. Includes instructor or professor.

Transportation: Work involving the movement of people and goods via land, rail, or water. Includes barge or boat pilot, litter-carrier, muleteer, railyard worker, oarsman, shipper, and wagoner. Excludes Slave Trade.

Writing and Publishing: Work involving the creation, editing, and publication of an original spoken or written work.

Other Occupation: Work that does not fall into any of the other occupational categories.

 

Racial Descriptor

Racial terms in documents produced by colonizers are highly subjective and often served the purposes of colonial powers. This included, at times, minimizing or erasing Indigeneity in order to make individuals more enslavable and as a mechanism of settler colonialism in an attempt to destroy sovereign Indigenous nations. We recognize that labels are not sufficient in describing Indigeneity and that simply listing “Indian” erases their specific tribe, nation, or community affiliations or identities. The records and data in this project are representations, and we have used racial descriptors to help users find individuals, not to define their identities.

Black: This term usually refers to a person having origins in any of the sub-Saharan groups of Africa, including African descended people of the Americas. We recognize that Black has many different present-day political and social meanings that go beyond this project’s usages. This term was imposed as a category on Indigenous and multi-racial people to justify enslaveability and subjugation and has also contributed to the erasure of Indigeneity in the archives. 

• • • • Language found in the source documents include Negro, Black, East India Negro; also skin color descriptions (dark-skinned, etc.).

 

Indigenous: This term usually refers to a person or group of people having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America and the Caribbean). We recognize that the term “Indigenous” has global resonances that are linked to people from specific places with knowledge of and respect for original ways. Due to the diverse nature of these groups, there is no single designation for all Indigenous peoples. 

• • • • The most common term in colonial documents is Indian. Some synonyms for Indigenous are Native American, Native, Indian, and American Indian.

 

Multi-Racial: In the records of this project, this term usually refers to those who descend from more than one racial background, usually white and Indigenous or Black, or Indigenous and Black. These designations were highly subjective and inconsistent, and were almost exclusively imposed by colonizers for their own benefit. The derogatory terms that were often used for mixed-race Indigenous people often had the effect of challenging “authentic” Indigenous identity. In cases of Black-Indigenous multiracial terms, foregrounding their association with Blackness justified the enslavement and marginalization of these people. The end result was often the archival erasure of Indigeneity. 

• • • • Language found in the source documents include Creole, Criollo, Dark Mulatto, Half Indian, Half Negro, Indian Mulatto, Mestiza, Mestizo, Mixed, Mulato, Multi, and Mustee. 

 

White: A person having primary family or ethnic origins in Europe. Like other racial designations, whiteness was often subjective and although it was claimed by Euro-descended peoples as an exclusive status of power, control, and privilege, it held legal weight and could be claimed by multiracial people as a basis for freedom. “White passing,” whether claimed or imposed, was/is another strategy of erasure. In the records of this project, the vast majority of enslavers were white. 

• • • • Language found in the source documents include Spanish, English, French, Dutch, and Creole (“creole could refer to a white European who was born in the Americas, as well as to a multi-racial person of color); in many early records, “Christian” also signifies white Europeans.

 

Status 

Indicator of a person in relation to slavery, servitude, or freedom. Archival documents can sometimes be imprecise or misleading about a person’s status. To account for the full range of servitude and slavery experienced by Native peoples, we have developed a range of vocabularies to distinguish between them. Sometimes these are drawn directly from the sources, but in other cases they are informed designations assigned by researchers who take into account other contextual information. 

free person: Person who possesses personal liberty, autonomy, and the ability to exercise their rights and make choices without coercion, constraint, or enslavement.

enslaver or owner: Person or organization who has some ownership or dominion over the services, body, labor, and reproductive rights of another person. Includes people who own slaves, servants, indentured servants, apprentices, as well as capturers, sellers/buyers, former enslavers, prospective enslavers, concessionaires, and overseers.

Example: James Pitts put an advertisement in the Boston News-Letter in 1707, calling for the return of Daniel Hump, an unfree individual who made the choice to emancipate himself from Pitts’ enslavement. View the document.

formerly unfree: Person who was once unfree but now lives in legal freedom. All prospective unfree individuals should also have an additional status as an unfree person.

emancipated: Person released from slavery through legislative or judicial action. Note: different from self-emancipated (runaway, below) and self-purchased (also below). 

Example: Coloose was enslaved by John Pight in 1710. The Commissioners of the Indian Trade of South Carolina ordered her to be made free. View the document.

freedman: Freedmen were individuals who had been enslaved by Native nations in Oklahoma (the so-called Five “Civilized” Tribes) and, after the Civil War, were given their freedom. The U.S. government required the Native nations who had enslaved them to give them citizenship in their nation. These formerly-enslaved people could be African-Americans or multi-racial, including Indigenous-Black individuals. The status of freedmen was contentious at the time, since many freedmen were not Indigenous at all, and has continued to be controversial up through the present day.

Example: Polly Colbert was a Black woman who was born into enslavement by Betsy Love and Holmes Colbert, who both belonged to the Choctaw tribal nation. Following the Civil War, she was emancipated and given a farm on Choctaw land. View the document.

manumitted: Person released from slavery through direct action of their enslaver.

Example: Benjamin Short was indentured to a woman referred to as Mrs. Short until the age of 21, but was released from service before that time. View the document.

self-purchased: Person released from slavery by purchasing their own freedom.

Example: Moll was enslaved by John and Ann Wells in the Summer Islands. On the condition that she supplied them with seven pounds of cotton before a set date, she was to be freed. View the document.

Indigenous kin: A free person who is Indigenous, usually related or a member of the same community as an unfree Indigenous individual. 

Example: William Ahaton (Ponkapoag) writes to the Massachusetts General Council in c. 1676 asking that a five-year-old Native girl be returned, who is also seemingly related to his wife (whose name is not given). View the document.

non-slaveholder: A free person who does not hold slaves.

Example: Thomas Holt was a sheriff who was responsible for the detainment of an Indigenous enslaved man, though he himself was not a slaveholder. View the document.

prospective unfree: A free person who may experience unfreedom at a future point. All prospective unfree individuals should also have an additional status as an unfree person.

Example: Indigenous man named Jesse was whipped and required to pay a sizable amount of money to replace a horse that he had stolen; if he was not able to pay, he could be put up for sale. View the document. 

unfree person: Person who is deprived of personal liberty and autonomy, is compelled to provide labor or service, or is subjected to varying degrees of control and exploitation by others. 

Example: A woman whose name was once known was advertised for sale in 1712 in the Boston News-Letter. Her exact form of unfreedom was not noted within the advertisement. View the document.

enslaved: Person whose body, labor, and reproductive rights are legally and indefinitely owned by another person or organization. Unless otherwise noted, enslaved persons are assumed to be enslaved for life. Enslaved individuals are treated as property, have no legal rights, and can be inherited, bought, and sold. The children of enslaved women are also presumed to be enslaved by law and custom. 

Example: An Indigenous person of about 17 years old was advertised for sale in the South-Carolina Gazette. View the document.

diplomatically traded/gifted: Person whose body, labor, and reproductive rights are traded between two parties as a means of diplomacy. Common in French and Iroquoian contexts. 

Example: Three Indigenous people taken in the Native slave trade in the Carolinas are discussed as potential diplomatic gifts but also with value on the slave trade market. View the document. 

judicial enslavement: A person who has been convicted of a crime and sentenced to slavery or servitude through a judicial process. 

Example: A Native man named Charles of New London, Connecticut was sentenced to serve two different colonists for debts, for a set number of years. View the document. 

liminal: Person in an indeterminate, intermediate, or transitional status between servitude and freedom. 

captive: Person who was forcibly seized, captured, or taken prisoner by European colonizers during periods of colonial expansion and conflict. Captives were often subjected to various forms of exploitation, including forced labor, servitude, sale into slavery, or assimilation within the colonial settler communities, but may not yet be in a formal role of enslavement or servitude.

Example: An Indigenous person whose name was once known was captured by Martin Frobisher and taken to England, where he died. View the document.

self-emancipated: A person who has escaped bondage. Commonly known as runaways or fugitives, they neither live nor are legally recognized as free or freed.

(The term “self-emancipated” is a decolonial term that adds agency to the actions of the enslaved person).

Example: John Pittome made the choice to leave unfreedom under Nathanael Holbrook of Sherburn in 1737 and his departure was advertised in the Boston Weekly News. View the document.

term-limited: Person whose labor and service are bound to a person or organization for a fixed term, sometimes under a contract, including as collateral against a debt. May be voluntary or involuntary. 

Example: Before she made the choice to emancipate herself and go to the Pequot nation, a Pequot girl lived as the legal servant of Samuel Maverick. View the document.

apprentice: Person whose term-limited unfreedom includes the acquisition of a skill or trade.

Example:  A Native woman named Jenny in Norwich, Connecticut, apprenticed her two year old son, Sampson, as an apprentice to serve until he was twenty-one years old. View the document. 

indenture: Person who enters, usually but not always voluntarily, into an agreement to provide labor or service for a fixed period. Though sometimes voluntary, it still involves a limited form of unfreedom during the contractual period. A person may enter an indenture voluntarily or be forced into the arrangement through judicial processes or their parents (if they are a minor). 

Example: James Gardner was indentured to William Bowen of Rhode Island before he self-emancipated in 1778. View the document.

 

Tribal Nation (coming soon)

 

 

EVENT

National Context

This category tries to place records and enslaved people in broad colonial categories in order to help understand in which legal and cultural systems they were operating. In some cases, enslaved people were trafficked between national contexts (and of course free people–European-descended, Natives, and Africans) also voluntarily traveled between national contexts. 

American: Post-1776, related to the areas under the control of the United States of America. 

British: Related to any of the English / British colonies in the Americas, as well as the British Isles. 

French: Colonial holdings of France in the Americas. 

Spanish: Colonial holdings of Spain in the Americas. 

Understanding and recognizing that spatial and political boundaries have shifted over time, accounting for changing geographic landscapes as areas modernize, street location changes, and structures such as buildings and homes have been demolished, we based geolocations on contemporary equivalents of locales. Below are some principles standards we followed to help map records and individuals you see in the the database.

1. Due to the structure of the database, individuals are grouped by records, the journal entry, baptism record, or runaway advertisement for example, and a single geolocation (latitude and longitude) is given to each record and, thereby, the group of individual attached to that record.
2. We determine the geolocation of the record as the location where the event in the record took place, i.e. where the birth took place in the baptism record, where the act of self-emancipation happened in the runaway advertisement, or the site where Indigenous people were captured as recounted in letters.
   • For records that do not have a mentioned location, we used the location where the original source was printed, as in where the newspaper or book was published.
   • For records that list multiple locations, we prioritized the location most relevant to the enslaved individuals first whenever possible to focus on the enslaved person rather than their enslaver. We do recognize that many enslaved people will be located and grouped with their enslavers.
   • For records that name multiple enslaved individuals, we considered which location is relevant to the most individuals within the record.
3. For lost counties or sites where the political boundaries are redrawn or erased and certain regions/areas that no longer exist, we used the geolocation of the county seat (aka capital) of the region/area at the time of the event.
4. When the geolocation in the record is too board such as providing only the state without additional context clues to determine a more exact location, we used the location of the state capital at time of the event. For example, from the record, Virginia in 1714 is geolocated to Williamsburg, Virginia.
5. We avoided using physical addresses for a location as it may place said location on sacred land or now private property such as private residences and cemeteries, raising potential trespassing and privacy concerns. In these cases, we zoomed out to the village, town, and city level.
   • An exception to this rule are addresses of public buildings or sites that are designated as and expected to be public destinations, like museums and historic houses that are open to public tours or preserved historic buildings in national parks. In these cases, an address of the building may be used to get more exact latitude and longitude coordinates. *Note, however, that addresses of cemeteries are not part of this exception and are not used for any geolocation data in this project.