Mormon church to make available records of 4 million freed slaves

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

(Reuters) - The Mormon Church will lead efforts to index records of about 4 million former slaves and their families in the hope of connecting African Americans with their Civil War-era ancestors, the Utah-based faith said on Friday.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has sponsored a non-profit organization called FamilySearch, which made the announcement alongside senior LDS officials in Los Angeles on the 150th anniversary of "Juneteenth," the day when word reached the last group of slaves that the Civil War was over and they were free.

"One of our key beliefs is that our families can be linked forever and that knowing the sacrifices, the joys and the paths our ancestors trod helps us to know who we are and what we can accomplish," Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told the launch.

"I witnessed the healing and joy African Americans experienced as they discovered their ancestors for the first time in those records."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/mormon-church-available-records-4-million-freed-slaves-005309686.html

[csziggy]

1. That's great! A lot of records are there but without indexing almost useless

I recently helped a young African American woman look for records on her father. She didn't know much about his family - he's been estranged from her mother's side of the family and her mother died a number of years ago.

I managed to take some branches of her father's family back to the Civil War and even found some earlier records on a branch that included a free black man in South Carolina in 1850! She was totally thrilled and excited to learn more about her ancestors.

But for the people who were slaves 1864 is basically a brick wall. I know where her people were living after the war but where they were before the war is a mystery.

[historylovr]

2. How exciting!

[jwirr]

3. They already have a lot of records. I did a young black child's genealogy so that he could

know his background. It was actually quite easy. Ended up the two families (white and black) have family reunions together. I worked through Ancestry.com

[Bossy Monkey]

4. They're allowing interracial celestial marriage now? Gee what progress. n/t

[Marrah_G]

5. I think this is wonderful