Here is an underreported news release on LDS's Records of freed slaves "The Mormon Church published records Monday from the post-Civil War Freedman's Bank for newly freed slaves, making ancestral records available for as many as 12 million black Americans. The records have been available for years through the National Archives but not in organized form. The church, formally the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spent 11 years, with help from volunteer Utah state inmates, extracting and linking the 480,000 names contained in the records. "These records can provide clues for an estimated 8 to 10 million African-American descendants living today who might want to research their family histories," said Elder L. Lionel Kendrick, a church official. The Freedman's Bank Records CD can be purchased for $6.50 over the Internet at Familysearch.org, or by calling church distribution centers at (800) 537-5971 and asking for item 50120. You can read the entire report at: http://www.salonmag.com/people/wire/2001/02/27/slaves/index.html