JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================rK" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?<#=ǜrBxRQH) pg8 uu&a4*QA#8zPp%͉ͩ?V+7/bjTZ$\OX48߇/TWR0ߞ 6/2{xU2m>xJI`! s$Ez_»ga!wH>64I¿38hm}H*$gIu隬6qO$zlLWW Hm7 #橾#MXKi}TOQТ4 *v 1D Ec>.^mJ`\*#] [TY.K:m'eGq 򉡹B*rllQ&UVwFRZQ\T/ov\䐩N8$}GZqׅ ^K̶1 $h99dǯ[kV|gTsZ/bfsGr2BS `ߟҮIȖ({p#pּ]z3@A:WfiI޽B? !w?O-F@V+#*4"Gj9nDk^<11e'YMi܎/Zj;#;aIc6줍[ 8#nRzN<%>^su&cӦq0Inpw5F= f1p~B4QKMZ>%;[%d!<VbNv<ӎ&V̧i&m7ؔN7'KZ$DirJ5KPi/SUF%g=y`%daǭy5kAz7vJ7IAFQv1h]YT4$?筑3ʎYAR:bT v\UlD*t6QQ=WSBea…՞Mi6=Շ_C iߕr xF%bA2TcʸbLT>>eɱ5L皢.2{UG9K{ I% 8*qnb<ҁRA,U\d~5m)T6%N83qN4ivݯQSW/5NdR(}y]k),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 donat