Virginia Digitizes Freedmen Records

The Freedmen's Bureau records for Virginia's former slaves have been digitized and are readily available to the public for the first time, according to a story by AP reporter Steve Szkotak. He quotes Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine as saying the effort had helped preserve the legacy of those "freedmen who at the end of the Civil War stepped out of slavery and into freedom."

The government records of more than 931,000 individuals who had lived in Virginia are accessible through the FamilySearch, a website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.