WASHINGTON - Black families torn apart by slavery may now be able to trace their roots with the release by the Mormon Church on Monday of records from a defunct bank used by ex-slaves immediately after the civil war.

In news conferences held across the country from Washington, D.C., to its headquarters in Salt Lake City, the church announced the release of a CD-ROM with indexed records from Freedman's Bank, a financial institution chartered by Congress in 1865 with the aim of benefiting former slaves.

"Easily searchable in seconds, these records can provide clues to an estimated 8 (million) to 10 million African-American descend their family history," said elder Lionel Kendrick of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, as the Mormon Church is officially called.

Genealogical researchers have long been aware of the existence of the Freedman's bank records, which were kept at the National Archives in Washington, but little use was made of the data because they lacked effective indexes.

Inmates from Utah State prison volunteered their time to help extract, link and record the 480,000 names contained in the records.

Freedman's bank collapsed in 1874 due to mismanagement and fraud, devastating the former slaves who had deposited more than $57 million in the bank, but providing a valuable repository for genealogists more than a century later.

Prior to the civil war, documentation on blacks was extremely limited, making it nearly impossible for people to trace their ancestral roots.

"What has come down to us is a treasure, a priceless opportunity as a result of the records kept at the bank," Kendrick told a news conference in Washington.

In accepting deposits at the bank, which had 37 branch offices and was headquartered in Washington, D.C., bank workers recorded the names and family relationships of all account holders, sometimes taking a brief oral history.

Some records also included the names of former slave owners and the plantation where the depositor had lived.

The Mormon Church has the largest genealogical archive in the world with family history records on more than 2 million people. The latest findings filled a gap in the church's own archives. According to church doctrine, families are eternal, and members are urged to trace their family trees.

What the church called the Freedman's bank project began in 1989 when employee Marie Taylor found the original microfilms of the records. She immediately recognized their significance.

"When I discovered the Freedman's bank records, I envisioned African-Americans breaking the chains of slavery and forging the bonds of families," said Taylor, who co-directed the project, in a statement.

(Reuter)