[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 6 (Thursday, January 11, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E79-E80]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE PRESERVATION OF RECORDS OF SERVITUDE, EMANCIPATION, 
                 AND POST-CIVIL WAR RECONSTRUCTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 11, 2007

  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to reintroduce H.R. 390, 
the Preservation of Records of Servitude, Emancipation, and Post-Civil 
War Reconstruction Act. This important legislation, which passed the 
Government Reform Committee unanimously last year, will ensure that 
African-Americans who want to trace their family's history in our 
country are not prevented from doing so because of inadequate 
preservation and access to the records.
  Madam Speaker, as you are aware, for most Americans, researching 
their genealogical history involves searching through municipal birth, 
death, and marriage records--almost all of which have been properly 
archived as public historical documents. However, African-Americans in 
the United States face a unique challenge when conducting genealogical 
research due to our Nation's history of slavery and discrimination. 
Instead of looking up wills, land deeds, birth and death certificates, 
or other traditional genealogical research documents, African-Americans 
must often try to identify the name of former slave owners, hoping that 
the owners kept records of pertinent information, such as births and 
deaths.
  To compound this difficulty, African-American genealogists find that 
most current records of servitude, emancipation, and post-Civil War 
reconstruction are frequently inaccessible, poorly catalogued, and 
inadequately preserved from decay. While some states and localities 
have undertaken efforts to collect these documents with varying degrees 
of success, there has not been any national effort to preserve these 
pieces of public and personal history to make them readily and easily 
accessible to all Americans.
  Madam Speaker, in 2000, both the House and Senate unanimously passed 
the Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation Act, which became Public Law 
106-444, and required the Archivist of the United States to create a 
searchable indexing system to catalogue the genealogical records from 
the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. This law was the first step 
towards ensuring that many of these valuable and important records are 
appropriately accessible to genealogists and historians, and based on 
its success we now recognize the need to expand the scope of the 
original law or risk losing other critically important historic 
documents.
  Madam Speaker, H.R. 390, the Preservation of Records of Servitude, 
Emancipation, and Post-Civil War Reconstruction Act, tackles the 
problems of poorly catalogued and inadequately preserved records in two 
ways. First, it will make sure that records of servitude, emancipation, 
and post-Civil War reconstruction currently being stored within the 
various agencies of the federal government will be properly preserved. 
This will protect a vast amount of genealogical information, including 
records from the Southern Claims Commission Records, the Records of the 
Freedmen's Bank, the Slave Impressments Records, and even Slave Payroll 
Records and Slave Manifests. By providing the Archivist of the United 
States with the resources necessary to preserve, maintain and 
electronically catalogue these important records we can eliminate many 
of the barriers that African-Americans encounter when trying to engage 
in a proper genealogy search. However, since many of these records are 
disbursed around the country in non-federal depositories, this 
legislation would also authorize the National Archives to distribute 
grants to the States, academic institutions, and genealogical 
associations in order to preserve and establish online databases of 
these important local records of servitude, emancipation, and post-
Civil War reconstruction. These grants will ensure that families doing 
research in my home State of California or anywhere in the country will 
access to these treasure troves of genealogical information without 
having to leave the comforts of their computer chair.
  Madam Speaker, I am delighted to be joined by colleagues from both 
sides of the aisle who are original cosponsors of my legislation and 
particularly appreciate the support of my good friends and colleagues, 
Tom Davis, and Elijah Cummings, whose assistance in drafting this bill 
has been monumental. I would urge the rest of our colleagues to support 
this legislation and hope that we will be voting on this bill soon.

[[Page E80]]



                          ____________________