An event was held in early December to celebrate the completion of a unique genealogy project that allows records from a difficult past to serve as a guide to a brighter future for millions of Americans. It's an honor to be here on this very happy occasion to commemorate the completion of the index to the Freedmen's Bureau records at an institution that stands as a symbol of resiliency and optimism, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Freedmen's Bureau records are a vast collection of documents showing the government's effort at the end of the U.S. Civil War to help people in the middle of a great transition. The bureau worked to facilitate the transition from enslavement to freedom, from the status of property to citizenship, from less than human to individual person and family member. The new database allows individuals to bypass the 1870 genealogy barrier that many African Americans felt was insurmountable. The Freedmen's Bureau records are the key to the gate to opening up that brick wall of 1870. Those records being available now, specifically on computer, being indexed--it changes the mindset of "My family is lost." And so the hope that comes from that is tremendous. What this allows thousands of people like me to do is to find themselves, is to be connected with a past that they had lost. What I want to say is thank all the volunteers. I want to thank FamilySearch, I want to thank the National Archives, because what you've really done is, you're helping thousands of people to be made whole again. [APPLAUSE] I think in 50, 100 years, they'll look back at this period in time, you know, what we did in 2016 as the catalyst for that healing. They'll see that we all came together to give a voice to those who were once voiceless. It's important, I think, for everyone to have a sense of place, a sense of where they belong, where they fit, what's the story that they're a part of. Especially in these, where they're very moving, sometimes very difficult and even tragic stories, but give a history of people who, in most cases, did their very best--that helps, I think, somebody in the here and now to say, "That's part of my past. I have ancestors I need to honor. I have people who did their best, and I'm going to do my best."