Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen - Culling Evidence From Freedman's Bank Postmortem Records

The Freedman’s Savings Bank was a bank chartered with the same high moral goals as the Freedmen’s Bureau, offering a social service to formerly enslaved citizenry. In recent years, family historians have leveraged account opening data to confirm emancipation locations, extended family, military service and more. Less known and researched are the records associated with the Bank’s closure post 1874. Federal agencies, legislation and documentation created to restore losses of depositors and their descendants was collated for over 50 years, well into the 20th century. Attendees will learn where and how to access these records that provide paths for primary evidence exploration with genealogical significance to African American researchers

Participants of this session will benefit most from knowing about post Civil War efforts of the US Government to assist formerly enslaved citizens. Resources for learning about this topic can be found under Additional Experiences.

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