Genealogy workshop for blacks

Three years after announcing the creation of the largest searchable database of genealogical information available on African- Americans, the LDS Church has compiled a workbook to further assist those looking for their ancestors.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will use the resource to help celebrate Black History Month with a free public workshop next weekend designed to help local African-Americans trace their family history.

Dubbed the African-American Family History Open House, the event is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the church's Family History Library, just across West Temple from Temple Square. Fliers have been posted and invitations extended through local African-American organizations, churches and at area universities, and anyone interested is welcome to attend.

Organizer Karen Jepson said the workshop, first offered last year, will include distribution of a free copy of the new African-American Research Workbook on CD-ROM that is now on sale in hard copy at the church's distribution center. Included on that CD is the Freedman Bank Records database, PAF 5.2 and African-American Resource Workbook created by the church using the help of prison inmates during the 1990s and released in 2001.

The database is based on records of the Freedman's Savings and Trust, a bank set up by the U.S. government in 1865 during Reconstruction for former slaves looking for a safe place to store money. Some 70,000 depositors provided detailed information on themselves, their spouses, children, parents and siblings on signature cards used to open accounts. Information included a depositor's name, age, birthplace, residence, "complexion," occupation, employer and military service. More than 480,000 names are indexed on the records, which until now have only been searchable via smaller compilations of indexes or individually on microfilm.

Church officials estimate that from 8 million to 10 million African-Americans now living have ancestors who deposited money in the bank.

Many African Americans "think it's too hard to trace their ancestry because there's not much information available. But really now most of us can trace our history through U.S. census records," said Jepson. Many African Americans "eventually tie into the Freedman Bank Records or slave records or WPA records. We have great resources that can expand beyond the census records."

The workbook offers step-by-step instructions, and participants "can really have a lot of success if they will bring a little information with them."

The opening session at 10 a.m. will feature Bishop Willie Dunn Jr. of the Worldwide Gospel Church, who attended last year's workshop and was able to trace one of his lines back to a male ancestor who was a slave, Jepson said. "It was a very touching experience for him," and he ended up presenting his findings to other family members during a reunion later in the year.

Dunn told Jepson that as a result of the research, he found himself "going down this old country road in Georgia where his ancestor was buried, looking for the old cemetery and uncovering the grave site" that had been long forgotten.

"It was very moving and overwhelming to him."

As a result, Dunn has agreed to keynote the conference and explain how the experience has affected him, she said.

Classes offered in the morning will be repeated in the afternoon, and experts will be available to help participants research or answer questions.

More than 100 people attended last year's event, and organizers are hoping to surpass that this year. For information or to pre- register, call 240-4950.

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com

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