Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Latter-day Saints Announce Completion of Freedman’s Project

Kathy Bence, Contributing WriterJuly 7, 2016

The Freedmen’s Bureau Project will bring a change to family history research for African Americans, according to Dr. Edna Briggs, president of the California African American Genealogical Society. FamilySearch, the largest genealogy organization in the world, which is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has announced completion of the Freedmen’s Bureau Project, which indexed the names of millions of African Americans collected directly following emancipation. “Indexing is a transcription effort that makes valuable genealogical records searchable online,” Dr. Briggs said. “By completing this project, African Americans can now digitally search for their ancestors who were previously

Religion

Faith community salutes digital release of Freedmen’s Bureau records

June 24, 2015

The Los Angeles faith community joined with African Americans across the nation in celebrating the digital release of four million historical records from the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Civil War agency established to assist newly freed slaves. At a press conference on June 19 at the California African American Museum, scores of faith and community leaders applauded the move and committed to support the nation-wide indexing effort, which will allow the public online access to trace ancestors from that time period. From 1865 to 1872, the Freedmen’s Bureau helped former slaves in 15 states and the District of Columbia to adapt