Ryan J. Woods

An educator and historian, Ryan J. Woods is President & Chief Executive Officer of American Ancestors. For more than two decades, he has dedicated his professional life to developing experiences to educate, inspire, and connect people through the exploration of history, heritage, and culture.

Since joining the American Ancestors staff in 2007, he has played a key role bringing the enduring power and promise of family history to people across the country and around the globe. He was the lead creator of AmericanAncestors.org. By fostering important collaborations with commercial and nonprofit partners, he recruited more than 1 billion searchable records to American Ancestors. He also led the collaborative effort to establish our Jewish Heritage Center. 

Currently, Ryan is focused on record access, partnerships, business planning for capital expansion, the creation of a national visitor destination experience, and the launch of 10 Million Names.

Ryan serves in leadership roles for several nonprofit organizations including as chairman of the Committee on Heraldry; appointed commissioner of the Special Commission for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; advisory board member for the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party; Secretary-General of the 36th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences; member of the Committee on Pretensions of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Connecticut; Deputy Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; partner representative on the Mayor of Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission; and past-President of the Boston University School of Education Alumni Association. Ryan is also an active Mason, belonging to The Lodge of Saint Andrew, where he serves as an appointed officer.

He is a member of the Order of Saint John, the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, the Mayflower Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the Saint Nicholas Society of New York City, and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.

In 2022, Ryan was elected an Honorary Life Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He also was honored by the New England Society in the City of New York (founded 1805), with the Townsend Award “in recognition of outstanding achievement representing the finest attributes of the New England character.” Prior to joining American Ancestors, he held several positions at other cultural and historical institutions, including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). During his tenure with NARA, he received the Archivist of the United States' Award for Outstanding Public Service.

A dedicated researcher, Ryan has authored pedagogical articles about the use of historical biographies to teach character and ethics and contributed genealogical articles and several book forewords for historical and genealogical publications. 

Born in Houston, Texas and raised along Lake Champlain in Vermont, Ryan attended Boston University earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in history education. 

"During the planning stages of this project, someone referred to 10 Million Names as a “genealogical moonshot.” We rather liked this comparison. Indeed, we choose to do this not because it is easy, nor because it is hard, but because it is right.

A founding member of our organization said, “Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world.” We are all just temporary stewards of a time and place. Each of us is a part of all that has come before us and, by grace and providence, we might have a positive impact here and now, and on what is to come after us.

The 10 Million Names project proposes to recover the names of the ten million people enslaved in America, and to restore those names to their families and to history. The yearning to know one’s ancestors and their influences is innately human. Long before the 10 Million Names project was conceived, many others had dedicated themselves to this cause. We are grateful for their tireless work and, through 10 Million Names, we strive to uplift their efforts. Some of the central aims of the 10 Million Names project are to amplify the voices of those who have been telling their family stories for centuries, connect researchers and partners with those seeking answers to family history questions, and to expand access to resources and information about enslaved African Americans and their descendants.

I am descended from men and women who were enslaved in this country and so my children are also descendants of enslaved peoples. Just as my children know of their Mayflower ancestry, their colonial New York Dutch past, and their American Revolution patriots, so too should they know of the Crisp family of Mississippi and the Jones family of Alabama. These ancestors of ours were born into bondage, and their descendants served their country as Black soldiers in World War I and the Korean Conflict. They were postal carriers, teachers, nurses, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. We are the result of many and varied American Stories and American Lives.

With a deep appreciation of the past and an abiding commitment to the future, we are proud to embark on this vital undertaking to recover these lost names and stories, and restore this lost history to American families."

— Ryan J. Woods, April 27, 2023. Adapted from remarks given at the “Celebrating American Stories, American Lives” Gala in Boston.