JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================`K" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?mo9%dI`1XӼ7oc$A4ĻQ֑6v¨0$ Υu58'R~۹k[ & ڻէ9,5Y\gQ_%oQ{s خ0k3x'!ST}2ir9e94gME[D{o-T^l\>뻯I=/)lzg hz@d]V\.L֝mN^-A__uqhV^'l"%?r­W޺v3% -uWvd+I?st;4j{h)Y⻝5~aFTUW=eENG|8%Z5\Ե8#yA@}qSor[fv<~x;]Z$z/J߲ӧ̐#w!\cN|b_Ċ#&5-剂vi'WZ;mhvG1\jymdkpJX(.7ZW=ys;zǮU/BҲw=*4 mx#[N]A/G+e Мz0Gz]Lȝ.4TVe>hv4]K~zY|1v +ѢZV8]aT&uxDckFR^֓9۱1SJ ׆2:gW?_;i|zwWz~"J"\iN&(X 9kl4ؚ!dwV RnlY"oN*s\Q?'Mq) !';I]<4W2ers.<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 and microfiche readers and 30 computer stations.