JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================iK" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?훫1i@ܒsUwr(.},jY2dTvs&P)n`so}.H1P,~ #H2 o; 0Զ͛Φ״kj-e~d*TXzTmdK΋Χ[0?W/osyn?@+7?UFN(6t b;VXMG"!37ˊ?.3ťGUd'n+ؗ69;#RL6vzz[(Ȗ5#͉#bM*$cL: sMHžeKV#23 >Es,q4́Ph Ax5hP.ɹv_zp"12A $sEW,f]-pp}qoLIht8?rxUԾ',BO gV-G-dJA*Ğ=xB.&5e$]i+x\&67l|Z֢lR"YH;q(#Fzw(b9etr \YE$qX2$ectxW(ؐffsjwcsWV?֩JMfXZ+WDSܨ@Ʒ/%b^Cx5PY({88+f[ ͉+)E^pek9X|i_5h7bE4]&g%BFcҫ, C]~HdO,ckc~\x2Ks֮'&vVQ[Do2J@S&>B @INk,t}X|GkGb-<4Z,Pp#ulČr(~4 SA?ZAia5?՚y9g,I{xyg'RC~44ZA Q~֥of their trusting customers.<br>Despite the bank s tragic financial history, its legacy of record keeping remains priceless. An estimated 10 million African-Americans living today have ancestors who deposited money in Freedman s Bank. Bank workers recorded the names and family relationships of account holders in an effort to establish bank customers identities. In doing so, they created the largest single repository of lineage-linked, African-American records thought to exist. <br>Family history researchers have long known about the Freedman s Bank records. The originals are preserved in the National Archives. But the data on microfilm has been essentially useless because it lacked effective and reliable indexes. The microfilm contains mid-19th century family records of 480,000 African-Americans. <br> Marie Taylor discovered these Freedman s Bank records and envisioned African-Americans breaking the chains of slavery and forging the bonds of families. She put together an inspired plan for the daunting task of compiling all these records into a useable format. The day-to-day efforts of extracting, linking and automating the 480,000 names contained in the bank records, were performed by a team of inmates from the Utah State Prison. Approximately 550 prisoners donated their time to this project. They worked in a unique, three-room facility filled with microfilm an