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Digital records from 19th Century give Black families a glimpse of their ancestry
Millions of Freedmen’s Bureau records have become newly available, helping to break down a barrier to history that many Black families couldn't access.
After more than 20 years researching her family’s origin in America, Nicka Sewell-Smith found the name of an uncle who had filed a complaint about having his horse stolen. Another notation said he had shopped for bacon, a broom and tobacco in “Short’s Place” in Louisiana about seven months before the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865.
