JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================rK" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?޽ :;M@dCnSsڔeu*ڝ@G9GVG;{- ]} HqCμ2B@'DqM}muC29-tk!o]֙ FQS}Y 튗fҢiOz3` (h(+p"hY]NJ!$qU8c2ue7vv֗5?cw?spJڳ&]1jT *_HsDOSMҒ" `aֵ{W!^݇yvV*5Iٞ4),L+wid e5;WrHzm&U1',y"/+i]=w?/ߐMghI3i5ŊfRm}O&ϰi_؎Wk 42sGh(UZ3tG.:t&Eu41++tD&h޸heoZ!'cKVP4PG ;4 D{ջkis-apY~ JMz4J8k,M'M¬n_0&.rɞpW5쎥]N nxPкK Imp C" Gb+^D[Fz]ʡZi|p 1M<+JWOfv,Y$kD ?)u>*~0Oݨ(I>T>QWe/-XPA=Vдj,RUS̾jw \pǦ{לUE" 8UPvxXoGmore than $57 million. Nine years later, the bank collapsed through mismanagement and fraud, ruining the dreams 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 cont