VOA标准英语2010年-Tracing Family History Gets Easier for

Artist James E. Taylor produced this sketch¹ of the Freedmen's Bureau office in Richmond, Virginia, issuing food rations² to old and sick former slaves in 1866

Some Americans can trace their heritage back to what we sometimes call the "old country" from which our ancestors came.  But the ancestors of millions of blacks were slaves in the American South.  They were given only first names, and sometimes the last names of their masters.  So African Americans' search for their family roots can be arduous³.  But two historical treasure troves certainly help.

Reconstruction⁴ era groups kept detailed⁵ records

As the U.S. Civil War of the 1860s wound down, the federal Congress created two agencies to help freed blacks cope with life amid the white southerners who had held them in bondage⁷.
   
One was the Freedmen's Bureau, a sort of social-service agency that helped former slaves record marriages, births and deaths; claim land taken from their former masters and settle legal disputes.

Library of Congress
Fiery⁸ abolitionist orator⁹ and former escaped slave Frederick Douglass was the last president of the Freedman's Bank

The other was the Freedman's Bank, which was designed to be a safe place to keep their funds.

Each institution kept careful records. These documents would have been extremely helpful to African Americans who, later, were trying to trace their family origins.  But they were filed away in boxes or on reels of un-indexed microfilm, useful only to the most dogged of researchers.

Utah prisoners and church members index the archive

But that all changed earlier this decade.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons, meticulously¹⁰ transcribed¹¹ and then indexed thousands of Freedman's Bank microfilm records onto a single compact disc.   More than 500 inmates¹² at Utah State Prison did much of the painstaking¹³ work on their own time, not as assigned prison labor¹⁴.

Here's an example of one record on the disc:
   
"Amanda Harris, brought up – Atlanta, Georgia.  No age given.  Complexion¹⁵ – yellow.  Occupation – 'at home.'  Husband – Thomas.  Children – Rosa, Bell, Robert, Carol (dead), three died young.  Was carried to Atlanta as a child.  Taken from her mother by the traders.  Was too small to know any of her relatives."

Howard Dodson, a historian and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, has said that such records provide what he calls a bridge back across the divide from freedom to slavery.  

Freedmen's Bureau records will offer more insights

And the news is also good for those who would like to examine the vast records of the Freedmen's Bureau.
 
In 2000, Congress ordered that the tattered¹⁶ and yellowed Freedmen's Bureau records stored in thousands of boxes at the National Archives also be indexed and put on microfilm. The job was assigned to Howard University, which was founded in Washington in 1867 by the Freedmen's Bureau commissioner¹⁷.  And once again, the Mormons in Utah are helping¹⁸.

Read more of Ted⁶'s personal reflections and stories from the road on his blog, Ted Landphair's America.

1 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

2 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

3 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

4 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

5 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

6 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

7 bondage   

n.奴役，束缚

参考例句：

• Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their way out of bondage.奴隶主们有时允许奴隶为自己赎身。
• They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。

8 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

9 orator   

n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家

参考例句：

• He was so eloquent that he cut down the finest orator.他能言善辩，胜过最好的演说家。
• The orator gestured vigorously while speaking.这位演讲者讲话时用力地做手势。

10 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

11 transcribed   

（用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的过去式和过去分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音）

参考例句：

• He transcribed two paragraphs from the book into his notebook. 他把书中的两段抄在笔记本上。
• Every telephone conversation will be recorded and transcribed. 所有电话交谈都将被录音并作全文转写。

12 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 painstaking   

adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的

参考例句：

• She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
• Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。

14 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

15 complexion   

n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格

参考例句：

• Red does not suit with her complexion.红色与她的肤色不协调。
• Her resignation puts a different complexion on things.她一辞职局面就全变了。

16 tattered   

adj.破旧的，衣衫破的

参考例句：

• Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
• Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。

17 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

18 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。