JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================pK" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?.4\ &N3v#89)o!ٻn Z|Az.ҫrw5Ѯ{CdG~>Zٴe*J/t BۘH ua3n 󭐹 dY 8n*u:=E \/m 3nۊG&0sT.O 0G_jK>öHV8qĢ]Ġc'lv7 7awH޸rZ,8^:i~Lhm!Y%_0B$ +м+r-'6)$3 )dQ\M¶T@xثAM:Sj%BA7)/iG?QVC]SiwQv=ǽsB^~ک L94%*՝Ŭ(~뎆,2zz8ڶp9 I4I 5TMj^+4+2.2>~Ҩ0$\]4m5N Ekk ֽ ȒbBǢOE47m3FۅdO{ho59U.jz2bs>iX.s"E00 >zƦ5Y | ΕgI:ԽI*rUv)4]MKTat-M|olӦO6͂G UmX}qWmefK1jQvEA&&+uǟ=뛸㔤U0EvjJqqvgi]/P[4륂^ pXzgVngtPZ$U܏n߅i:6`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