FamilySearch, the largest genealogy organization in the world, hosted a press event on Friday, at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles announcing the digital release of 4 million Freedmen’s Bureau historical records and the launch of a nationwide volunteer indexing effort.
The event featured speakers from partner organizations, including Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a senior-level leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Sherri Camp, vice president of the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society; and other multimedia presentations.
Music will be provided by an interfaith African American Choir from Los Angeles under the direction of Quaford Coleman.
FamilySearch is working in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States, the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society and the California African American Museum to make these records available. Throughout the year, volunteers with each of these organizations and interested individuals from the general public will search and index these priceless records, making the information, details and histories readily discoverable for free online genealogical searches. This effort will allow many African Americans to create a link to their Civil War-era ancestors for the first time.
The Freedmen’s Bureau was organized near the end of the American Civil War to assist newly freed slaves in 15 states and the District of Columbia. From 1865 to 1872, the bureau opened schools to educate the illiterate, managed hospitals, rationed food and clothing for the destitute and even solemnized marriages. In the process it gathered priceless handwritten, personal information on potentially 4 million African Americans.