Alabama, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1900,Records of the Field Offices for the State of Alabama, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands which is part of Record Group 105 Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. The images are generally arranged in the order the records were microfilmed with the records of the Assistant Commissioner who oversaw Bureau operations in the state and state level staff officers; Commissary of Subsistence, Inspector General and Disbursing Officer, Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, and Surgeon first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

Home Colonies: Butler County, Demopolis, Garland, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Selma, and Talladega. Freedmen's Hospitals: Demopolis, Garland, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Selma and Talladega.

Records with Freedmen and Refugee Names
 * Claims: Huntsville, Rolls 18-19; Mobile, Roll 23; Montgomery, Roll 26
 * Complaints: Demopolis, Roll 10; Greenville, Roll 13; Opelika, Roll 28; Selma, Roll 30-31; Tuscaloosa, Roll 34
 * Labor Contracts: Ashland, Roll 9; Cahaba, Roll 9; Montgomery, Roll 25; Tuscumbia, Roll 34;
 * Patient, Prescription, Sick & Wounded Registers: Demopolis, Roll 11; Garland, Roll 11; Huntsville, Roll 20; Mobile, Roll 23: Montgomery, Roll 27; Selma, Roll 31; Talladega, Roll 33; Tuskegee, Roll 34
 * Rations, Selma, Roll 31
 * Commissary of Subsistence: Roll 3, Lists of Heads of Families Who Have Received Relief (Certificates of Applicants) Applications for Relief
 * Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer: Roll 7, Monthly Reports of Person and Articles Hired
 * Cahaba: Roll 9, Contracts, Register of Contracts, and Registers of Transportation and Rations Issued
 * Huntsville: Roll 15, Register of Rations Shipped to Agents and Issued in the Colonies; Fair Copies of Contracts; Rosters of Officers and Employees
 * Huntsville and Athens (Claims Agent): Roll 19, Census of Black Citizens and Register of Bounty Claims Received and Forwarded; Registers of Claims Allowed; Registers of Claims Forwarded; Registers of  Disbursements; Registers of Claimants
 * Livingston: Roll 20, Register of Complaints, Court Records, Lists of Contracts
 * Mobile: Roll 22, Registers of Contracts and Complaints; Transcripts of Mayor’s Dockets
 * Selma: Roll 31, Register of Rations Issued to Freedmen and Destitute Whites; Complaints

The following table shows where the field offices in Alabama were located, the names of the employees, what office they held, and the dates they served. Additional information can be found at Freedmen's Bureau Alabama Field Office Personnel.

The state Sub-Districts, as of November 5, 1868
 * District of Talladega: Baine, Blount, Calhoun, Cleburne, Clay, Cherokee, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega, Winston, Walker and Jefferson
 * District of Mobile: Baldwin, Clark, Mobile, Monroe, Washington
 * District of Opelika: Chambers, Lee, Macon, Randolph and Russell
 * District of Wedowee: Randolph
 * District of Girard: Russell
 * District of Montgomery: Autauga, Coosa, Elmoer, Lowndes, Montgomery and Tallapooosa.
 * District of: Hayneville: Lowndes
 * District of Huntsville: Colbert, DeKahb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Morgan, Marshall and Marion.
 * District of Athens: Limestone
 * District of Greenville: Butler, Crenshaw, Covington, and Conecuh.
 * District of Demopolis: Choctaw, Greene, Hale, Marengo, and Sumter.
 * District of Livingston: Sumter
 * District of Selma: Bibb, Dallas, Perry and Wilcox.
 * District of Tuscaloosa: Fayette, Jones, Pickens and Tuscaloosa.
 * District of Eufaula: Barbour, Bullock, Dale, Henry, Pike and Coffee.

On March 2, 1867 Congress created five military districts in the Southern States. Some of the records of these military districts found in Record Group 393 may relate to records of the Freedmen's Bureau. The link below to the National Archives Catalog will provide history to the third district and links to record descriptions.
 * War Department. Third Military District. 3/11/1867-7/28/1868	Alabama, Florida, Georgia

General Information about Freedmen's Bureau Records
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in the War Department in March of 1865. It was commonly called the Freedman’s Bureau and was responsible for the management and supervision of matters relating to refuges, freedmen, and abandoned lands. The Bureau assisted disenfranchised Americans, primarily African Americans, with temporal, legal and financial matters, with the intent of helping people to become self-sufficient. Matters handled included the distributing of food and clothing; operating temporary medical facilities; acquiring back pay, bounty payments, and pensions; facilitating the creation of schools, including the founding of Howard University; reuniting family members; handling marriages; and providing banking services. Banking services were provided by the establishment of the Freedman’s Saving and Trust Company, or Freedman’s Bank.

The Bureau functioned as an agency of the War Department from approximately June 1865 until December 1868. In 1872, the functions of the Bureau were transferred to the Freedmen’s Branch of the Adjutant General’s Office. The Bureau assisted over one million African Americans, including many of the nearly four million emancipated slaves, which was over 25% of the population of former slaves in America. The records identify those who sought help from the Bureau at the end of the Civil War. Most supplicants were freed slaves, some of which were military veterans. In addition, a few veterans who were not African Americans also sought help from the Bureau. Freedmen’s Bureau records are usually reliable, because the records were supplied through first-person correspondence or the recording of a marriage.

 Related Articles 
 * Dr. Shelly Viola Murphy, Let Freedom Ring Family Tree Magazine 23 # 3 (May-June 2022): 50-56. FS Library 973 D25ft V23. Issue 3
 * Sharon Batiste Gillins.A Window into the lives of black and white ancestors: Freedmen's Bureau field office records. NGS Magazine 39 #1 (January-March 2013): 34-38.
 * Sharon Batiste Gillins. Navigating Freedmen's Bureau Records for Research Success NGS Magazine 47 #2 (April-June 2021): 27-35

National Museum of African American History & Culture
The museum is working with the Smithsonian Transcription Center and volunteers to transcribe the records of the Bureau.
 * Freedmen's Bureau Transcription Project.
 * About The Freedmen's Bureau Database Records
 * FREEDMEN'S BUREAU ABBREVIATIONS, STAFF ROSTERS, AND STYLE SHEETS
 * Freedmen's Bureau - Browse Projects

Sample Images

 * NARA Select Images from Freedmen's Bureau Records

Record Types
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) created many different record types necessary to supervise relief efforts including education, health care, food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments and pensions. These records include letters and endorsements sent and received, account books, applications for rations, applications for relief, court records, labor contracts, registers of bounty claimants, registers of complaints, registers of contracts, registers of disbursements, registers of freedmen issued rations, registers of patients, reports, rosters of officers and employees, special and general orders and circulars received, special orders and circulars issued, records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads.
 * The following link will provide a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen's Bureau collections. Freedmen's Bureau Record Types

 Officer's Manual

The War Department published an Officer's Manual to assist bureau personnel in the records that were required to be keep in bureau offices. The following Wiki articles are transcriptions of portions of the manual
 * United States, National Archives, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual
 * US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - I, Book Keeping and Official Correspondence
 * US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - IV, Medical Department
 * US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - V, Subsistence
 * US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - VI, Miscellaneous Provisions - Includes Reports from Assistant Commissioners

Inventory
Collection descriptions for the browse images may be located in either the published National Archives preliminary inventory with the "Entry No." or the National Archives Catalog Online Public Access Catalog "OPA." with the National Archives Identifier "NAID" number. To review the inventory see the following link. Inventory

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * Freedmen would have determined what their name would be and may have changed it multiple times. See: The Complexity of Slave Surnames, Reclaiming Kin
 * The date of the event or the name of a parent or spouse
 * Locate your ancestor in the 1870 Census. Most local Bureau activities ended (except from claims and education) in December 1868
 * Check the records of the local field office in the area(s) where you believe your ancestor lived between June 1865 and December 1868.
 * Determine, if possible, the name of the former owner. The 1860 Slave Schedule may be helpful. Also consider searching the 1860 and 1870 Agricultural Schedules. This would be helpful when searching for labor contracts.
 * The Bureau created many different types of records. Review the record types in the Collection Content section in this article.
 * While searching Bureau records remember to search other records of the local government, including marriage and court records and especially the 1867 or later voter registrations.United States, National Archives, Records of U.S. Army Continental Commands - 1867 Voter Registration
 * Consider ancestors who may have been employed as a civilian agent or served as local agent while still in the military. Look for statewide rosters of bureau personnel in the records of Assistant Commissioners and the Field Office Personal Coverage for this state. Others may have worked with relief associations or taught school supported by relief associations in the north like the American Missionary Association.

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Use the age to calculate a birth date and to find other records such as birth, christening, census, and death records
 * Use the information to find additional family members
 * Search land and probate records
 * Search the 1866 State Census
 * Search the 1867 Voter Registrations- See related Websites
 * Search the 1870 Census

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist. Former slaves may have had used multiple names or changed their names until they decided upon one particular name
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names
 * Search the 1866 State Census
 * Search the 1867 Voter Registrations - See Related Websites
 * Search the 1870 Census

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in the state of Alabama.
 * Alabama Guided Research
 * Alabama Record Finder
 * Alabama Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Alabama Research, 1880-Present

Other FamilySearch Collections
These collections may have additional materials to help you with your research.

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Frazine K. Taylor, compiled and edited, Researching African-American genealogy in Alabama : a resource guide. Montgomery, Alabama : New South Books, c2008 FS Library 976.1 D27t
 * edited by Paula K. Byers, African American genealogical sourcebook. New York, New York : Gale Research, c1995 FS Library 973 F27afg The Freedmen's Bureau pages 68-98
 * edited by Richard Zuczek, Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era. 2 volumes. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press, ©2006 FS Library 973 N26z
 * George R. Bentley, A history of the Freedmen's Bureau. Reprint. Philadelphia, PA : University of Pennsylvania, 1955. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania, 2016 FS Library Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania, 2016. FS Library973.714 F875b
 * Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Washington, D.C. : Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, 1980- FS Library 973 D25j
 * Alabama Genealogical Society magazine Birmingham, Alabama : Alabama Genealogical Society, 1967- FS Library 976.1 B2ag
 * Alabama. Department of Archives and History. Negroes in the Confederate Army, 1860-1907
 * Alabama. Field Office Records
 * Alabama. Records of the Assistant Commissioner
 * Alabama. Records of the Superintendent of Education
 * United States census, Alabama, 1850 : Autauga thru Wilcox counties
 * Agricultural and manufacturing census records of fifteen southern states for the years 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880
 * Alabama, 1860 federal census : population schedules
 * Alabama 1866 State Census
 * 1870 census index to selected Alabama counties
 * Marshall County, List of registered voters, ca. 1867
 * Morgan County. Index to black marriages, 1863-1932
 * Gwendolyn Lynette Hester. Freedmen and colored marriage records : 1865-1890, Sumter County, Alabama. FS Library 976.141 V22h

FamilySearch Digital Library

 * Elaine Everly, Willna Pacheli, comp. Preliminary inventory of the records of the field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands : record group 105.Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1973.
 * Officers' manual : Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Washington D.C. : Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1866

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

Alabama, registros de la oficina de campo de Freedmen's Bureau (Registros históricos de FamilySearch)