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

Why Should I Look at This Collection?
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
 * 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.

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1903Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, 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 state level staff officers; Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Surgeon in Chief, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

Also available is a field office personnel coverage table which shows where the field offices in Georgia were located, the names of the employees, what office they held, and the dates they served. Freedmen's Bureau Georgia Field Office Personnel Coverage Table

The state Districts, under Sub-Commissioners as of July 1, 1868
 * District of Savannah: Bryan, Bullock, Chatham, Effingham, Liberty, McIntosh, Sapelo Island, Screven and Tatuall,
 * District of Brunswick: Appling, Camden, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Echols, Glynn, Pierce, Ware and Wayne
 * District of Thomasville: Berrien, Brooks, Decatur, Lowndes and Miller
 * District of Albany: Baker, Calhoun, Clay, Dougherty, Early, Lee, Mitchel, Quitman, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Terrell, Webster and Worth
 * District of Columbus: Chattahoochee, Harris, Macon, Marion, Merriwether, Muscogee, Troup
 * District of Macon: Baldwin, Butts, Dooly, Houston, Jasper, Laurens, Montgomery, Monroe, Pike, Putnam, Pulaski, Spalding, Telfair, Twiggs Upson, Washington, Wilcox and Wilkenson
 * District of Augusta: Burke, Columbia, Glascock, Greene, Hancock, Jefferson, Lincoln, Morgan, Richmond, Taliaferro, Warren and Wilkes
 * District of Athens: Banks, Clarke, Elbert, Franklin, Gwinnette, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Madison, Oglethorpe, Rabun and Walton
 * District of Atlanta: Campbell, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Fayette, Forsyth, Harolson, Heard, Henry, Milton, Newton and Paulding
 * District of Rome: Bartow, Catoose, Dawson, Faunin, Gilmer, Gordon, Lumpkin, Murray, Pickens, Towns, Union, White and Whitefield

Hospital and Medical Locations
 * Albany, Dispensary, Roll 39, Registers of Patients, 3 volumes
 * Americus, Dispensary, Roll 40, Register of Patients
 * Atlanta, Freedmen's Hospital, Roll 46, Registers of Patients, Register of Patients at the Dispensary of Atlanta Medical College
 * Augusta, Freedmen's Hospital, Roll 49, Register of Patients, Register of Patients at Smallpox Hospital
 * Brunswick, Dispensary, Roll 54, Register of Patients
 * Columbus, Dispensary, Roll 57, Register of Patients, Ration Returns, Register of Outdoor Patients and Receipts
 * Darien, Dispensary, Roll 61, Register of Patients and Prescription Book
 * Macon, Freedmen's Hospital, Register of Patients Treated at Hospital, 3 volumes; Register of Medications Administered to Patients
 * Newton, Dispensary
 * Savannah, Lincoln Hospital, Roll 86, Registers of Patients, 4 volumes, Register of Sick and Wounded and Case, Diet and Prescription Book

with Freedmen and Refugee Names'''

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

Collection Inventory Table
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. Collection Inventory Table

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before search this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * The date of the event, residence or the name of a spouse or parent
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 Personnel Coverage Table for this state.  Others may have worked with aid associations or taught school supported by aid associations in the north.
 * Freedmen would have determined what their name would be and may have changed it multiple times.

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, and death
 * Search for the family in the 1870 census
 * Use the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules to approximate where the slaves lived
 * Search the land and probate records of the slave owner for the names of their slaves

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

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. 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 during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names

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

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Georgia. Records of the Field Offices
 * Georgia. Records of the Assistant Commissioner
 * Georgia. Records of the Superintendent of Education
 * Returns of Qualified Voters,1867-1868
 * Reconstruction Registration Oath Books, 1867-1868 Digital Images
 * Paula K. Byers, ed.  African American genealogical sourcebook New York, New York : Gale Research, c1995 FHL 973 F27afg See pages 68-98 The Freedmen's Bureau
 * Paul A. Cimbala. Under the guardianship of the nation : the Freedmen's Bureau and the reconstruction of Georgia, 1865-1870.
 * Joann Martin. Slave bills of sale project 2 vols. Atlanta, Georgia : African-American Family History Association, 1986.FHL 975.8 F2sL
 * Decatur County, Census of slave owners and slaves, mortality records, and agricultural census, 1850, 1860
 * Oglethorpe County marriages account book & marriage licenses of freedmen, 1854-1874 DGS 7578740
 * Taliaferro County. Records of free negroes, 1829-1864

FamilySearch Historical Records

 * Records of the Commissioner
 * Records of the Assistant Commissioner
 * Superintendent of Education and the Division of Education Records
 * Freedmen’s Bank
 * United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860
 * 1870 Census
 * Georgia, Reconstruction Registration Oath Books, 1867-1868
 * Georgia, Returns of qualified voters, 1867-1868

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
 * Names from Georgia Freedmen's Bureau Letters, Roll 13
 * 1860 Georgia Gazetteer

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