Maryland and Delaware, 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 M1906 Records of the Field Offices for the States of Maryland and Delaware, 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; Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Claim Division, Complaint Division, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

Records with Freedmen and Refugee Name
 * Assistant Commissioner’s Office, Roll 5, Assistant Commissioner’s Land Reports, Teachers Monthly School Reports
 * Assistant Commissioner’s Office, Roll 6, Reports of Persons and Articles Hired
 * Assistant Commissioner’s Office, Roll 6, Register of Complaints of Illegal Apprenticeships
 * Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 16, Register of Claimants, Registers of Cash Received and Disbursed, 3 volumes, Register of Disbursements
 * Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 17, Receipts for Pay, Bounty, and Pension Certificates, A-R
 * Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 18, Receipts for Certificates, R-Z
 * Claim Division, Roll 28, Register of Claimants for Bounties and Pay Arrearages
 * Claim Division, Roll 29-32, Case Files for Claims for Bounty and Pay Arrearages, A-Y
 * Claim Division, Roll 32, Register of Claimants for Pensions
 * Claim Division, Rolls 33-35, Case Files of Pension Claims, A-Y
 * Claim Division, Roll 35, Register of Maryland Bounty Claims Filed through Hugh L. Bond, Register of Claims Not Originally Filed through the Baltimore Office, Register of Loyal Slave Owners, Maryland and West Virginia, Names and Addresses of Claimants, 2 volumes
 * Complaint Division, Roll 37, Register of Complaints
 * Bladensburg, Roll 41, Register of Complaints
 * Rockville, Roll 42, Register of Complaints
 * Wilmington, Delaware, Roll 42, Register of Claimants for Bounties, Register of Claims for Pensions, Register of Payments

Collection Content
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 searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * The age of the person
 * The residence or former slave owner
 * 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.

What Do I Do Next?
Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

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

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Search the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules
 * Determine if there are plantation records where the slave may have lived
 * Search land and probate records for bill of sales
 * Search court records

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

 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name
 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names
 * Look for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties
 * Former slaves may have had used multiple names or changed their names until they decided upon one particular name. Search all possible names along with variations or spellings of their known names

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

FamilySearch Catalog
Register of Wills
 * Records of the field offices for the states of Maryland and Delaware, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872: M1906]
 * Jerry M. Hynson. Maryland freedom papers. Westminster, Maryland : Family Line, 1996-c2001.Contents: vol. 1. Anne Arundel County -- v. 2. Kent County -- v. 3. Maryland Colonization Society manumission book 1832-1860.
 * Trish Surles, comp.,  Kent County, Maryland commission of slave statistics, 1864 : includes civil war enlistments 1 volume. Gambrills, Maryland : T. Surles, c2002. FHL 975.234 U3s
 * Dorothy S. Provine, abstracted and edited, Registrations of free Negroes, 1806-1863, Prince George's County, Maryland Washington, D.C. : Columbian Harmony Society, c1990 FHL 975.251 H68p
 * Cathy Downes, compiled and abstracted, Queen Anne's County, Maryland : certificates of freedom 1807-1848 Centreville, Maryland : Queen Anne's County Historical Society, 200-? FHL 975.234 H6d
 * Agnes Kane Callum, comp., Slave statistics of Saint Mary's County, Maryland, 1864Baltimore, Maryland : Mullac Publishers, c1993 FHL 975.241 H6c
 * Baltimore, Baltimore City, Certificates of Freedom, 1820-1864
 * Charles County, Certificates of freedom, 1826-1860
 * St. Mary's County, certificates of freedom, 1806-1852

Related FamilySearch Record Collections

 * 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
 * United States Census, 1870

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.