The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
CD project gives black genealogy boost
This column was published March 4, 2001
The Rosetta Stone that will unlock the lineage of millions of descendants of black slaves has been published as a searchable database on compact discs.
On Monday, as Black History Month was drawing to a close, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced completion of an 11-year project to make records of the Freedman's Bank available to genealogists on CDs.
Conclusion of the project and availability of the CDs was the subject of a massive public relations effort by church officials, who made their announcement in a teleconference from Salt Lake City and Washington D.C., with news conferences in 11 other major U.S. cities.
William Alexander Haley, chairman of the Alex Haley Center and son of Roots author Alex Haley, and Edward Lewis, a member of the board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, participated in the news event.
Haley said: "The Freedman's Bank records may be more than just an historical record. They may be the Rosetta Stone - the piece that allows you to go in and make the connection."
The Rosetta Stone is a black basalt tablet that was made in Egypt around 200 B.C. Its engraved writings allowed modern scholars to unlock the mystery of hieroglyphs.
Genealogists in the Mormon Church's Family History Library estimate that 8 million to 11 million blacks descended from the 480,000 former slaves whose names are in surviving bank records now published in a unique, searchable database that documents several generations of blacks immediately after the Civil War.
The Freedman's Savings and Trust Co. was chartered by Congress in 1865 to benefit ex-slaves. An estimated 70,000 former slaves deposited more than $57 million in the bank, which was supposed to provide a safe haven from swindlers while former slaves learned financial management skills.
The bank, suffering from mismanagement and fraud, collapsed in 1874 after a failed rescue effort. The bank's failure was an economic nightmare for tens of thousands of former slaves.
Now, 127 years later, records of a financial disaster are rising phoenix-like as a key to help unlock black lineage.
The CDs made available Monday contain microfilmed copies of the Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Co.
Unfortunately, the records aren't complete. The 55-volume collection embodies the surviving records of 29 out of 37 branches of the bank.
The bank records contain signatures of thousands of depositors along with some of the following information:
* Date the account was opened.
* Age, place of birth, where raised, plantation and current residence.
* Name of former master or mistress, occupation and employer.
* Names of members such as spouse, children, parents, siblings, in-laws and other relatives.
* Other remarks such as assigned military units during the Civil War.
Freedman's Bank project co-director Marie Taylor said: "There isn't anything like this for any ethnic group I know of, particularly for this time period. These people were torn apart by slavery and these records can help put those families back together."
The church's news release says the Freedman's Bank project created the largest single repository of lineage-linked black records known to exist.
Although many Freedman's Bank records have long been known to genealogical researchers, they have been little used because they lacked effective indexes.
Extraction and computerization of the Freedman's Bank records was accomplished with the assistance of 550 inmates at the Utah State Prison's South Point Family History Center.
Work on the project was strictly volunteer. It was so popular with inmates that a waiting list was created for convicts who wanted to join the project.
During the decade that they worked on the project, the prison's family history center grew to fill three rooms with microfilm and microfiche readers and 30 computer stations staffed by five inmate clerks.
Warden Clint Friel said the project helped inmates improve their self-esteem by helping other people. It also helped many enhance their literacy and develop basic computer skills.
Costs of the project were borne by financial contributions of inmates, the LDS Church and private individuals.
The Freedman's Bank Records CD is available at cost for $6.50. It can be ordered over the Internet at www.familysearch.org or by calling church distribution centers at 800-537-5971 and asking for item No. 50120.