Mississippi, 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.

For details about the contents of these records, their history, and help using them, see the wiki article: United States Freedmen’s Bureau Records - FamilySearch Historical Records. Also available is a field office personnel coverage table which shows where the field offices in Mississippi were located, the names of the employees, what office they held, and the dates they served. See: Freedmen’s Bureau Mississippi Field Office Personnel Coverage Table.

What is in This Collection?
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War 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.

This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1907 Records of the Field Offices for the State of Mississippi, 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; Superintendent of Education, Assistant Inspector General, Disbursing Officer and Quartermaster, Surgeon in Chief, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

 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.



The state was divided into Districts, under Sub-Commissioners - March 1866
 * District of Columbus: Tippah, Tishomingo, Pontotoc, Itawamba, Chickasaw, Monroe, Oktibbeha and Lowndes Counties. HQ Columbus
 * District of Meridian: Winston, Noxubee, Neshoba, Kemper, Newton, Lauderdale, Jasper, Clark, Jones and Wayne Counties. HQ Meridian
 * District of Jackson: Hinds, Copiah, Simpson, Smith, Scott, Rankin, Leake, Madison, Attala and Holmes Counties. HQ Jackson
 * District of Brookhaven: Lawrence, Pike, Amite, Covington, and Marion Counties. HQ at Brookhaven
 * District of Natchez: Adams, Wilkinson, Franklin, and Jefferson Counties. HQ at Natchez
 * District of Pass Christian: Perry, Green, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties: HQ at Pass Christian
 * District of Vicksburg: Warren, Claiborne, Yazoo, Issaquena, Washington, Bolivar, Sunflower, Coahoma and Tunica Counties. HQ at Vicksburg
 * District of Grenada: Carroll, Choctaw, Tallahatchie, Yalobusha, Calhoun, Panola, Lafayette, Desoto and Marshall Counties. HQ at Grenada

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 links will provide a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen's Bureau collections. Freedmen's Bureau Record Types
 * Officers' Manual. Washington. 1866
 * Col. Samuel Thomas. '' Digest of Orders and Instructions to Sub-Commissioners. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Mississippi, Vicksburg: Freedmen's Bureau Press Print, 1866

Inventory Collection
The inventory will include for each individual collection the National Archives Identifier Number (NAID) and preliminary inventory entry number.
 * Inventory


 * Records with Freedmen and Refugee Names

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * The name of a relative or date of the event

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?

 * Use the information to find vital records such as birth, christening, marriage, and death
 * Search for the family in census records
 * Search land and probate records

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. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images. 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
 * 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 Mississippi.
 * Mississippi Guided Research
 * Mississippi Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research

Related Wiki Articles

 * African American Introduction
 * Researching African American Genealogy
 * Quick Guide to African American Records
 * African American Research
 * African American Freedmen's Bureau Records

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Records of the field offices for the state of Mississippi, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872
 * Mississippi labor contract index : Freedman listing index
 * An index to Hinds County, Mississippi Freedmen's Bureau labor contracts
 * G.L. Smith, comp. Civil War brides & grooms of Vicksburg, Mississippi : copies of records from the Freedmen's Bureau records
 * Apprenticeships of freedman (former slaves), 1866-1869. Lowndes County, Mississippi
 * Carroll County, Voting/election, poll lists, 1867-1891

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

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.