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Published - 27 October 2006 4:014AM CDT || AP

Records of Freed Slaves to go online

Richmond, VA (AP) -- Records the Freedmen's
Bureau used to reconnect families _ from battered work
contracts to bank forms _ will be placed online in part of a
new project linking modern-day blacks with their ancestors.

The Virginia Freedmen Project plans to digitize more than
200,000 images collected by the Richmond bureau, one of
dozens of offices established throughout the South to help
former slaves adjust to free life.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Thursday unveiled the project and
a state marker near the site where the bureau once stood in
downtown Richmond.

"This is the equivalent for African Americans of Ellis Island's
records being put up," said Kaine, who was joined by
Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor
and a grandson of slaves.

Researchers will eventually transfer data from all of the southern
states to an online database, said Wayne Metcalfe, vice president
of the Genealogical Society of Utah, a partner in the project.

Records from Virginia should be ready to go online by the
middle of next year, Metcalfe said.

Source: AP