JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================ZK" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?eFtz?y{Ti:SVCIFy4+1p5-inP 0#]~ܑ 7 uݎ0~i>ҼCϞe7)֛v&1L=deXrS4n-T<+o- "$Kȁ dgZ:};E!@dvbKUsH.VNŅhX[$]آ Sn P]v^\HKS(B~_ηPKp |)N[~V.R]B#U& }izi$&w.NFUo.6*@YK;4WM^IC_Gu$ecR2iL6f Kq@X1@-]tS(h5In5]$GV<Oli'y 31]kisʠan}}*Z+.Hrra\v=reĂvbYr8jIg[kˇV@-,GvFY ^1TkVZt"-X'?G(ԆGmRRncy5KO߽#=jkd[; ;zxṞZ͍8SZQц. tӷdNK`y5ZV5F "K Y=}k'Z[8f5˃9+!qKx W$LzncCش/,S'V=KgiabpW2x$RS]E(}QJ7c\dԱX5;Ͻf]]YoqQIckcklf\X8BsՕ6Keyem13I0$ RcΣ&VwI9&uSF pCV$R="!85}g+O'ՙBhzP})s;Oine 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 contained in the bank records, were performed by a tea