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.

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

The state Districts, under Sub-Commissioners 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.

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

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 
 * 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

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 searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * 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 enslaved 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. Others may have worked with aid associations or taught school supported by aid associations in the north.

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 in your research for 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

Related Holdings of the Family History Library

 * Alabama. Field Office Records
 * Alabama. Records of the Assistant Commissioner
 * Alabama. Records of the Superintendent of Education
 * Alabama 1866 State Census
 * 1870 census index to selected Alabama counties
 * Agricultural and manufacturing census records of fifteen southern states for the years 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880
 * Frazine K. Taylor, compiled and edited, Researching African-American genealogy in Alabama : a resource guide. Montgomery, Alabama : New South Books, c2008 FHL 976.1 D27t
 * Dee Parmer Woodtor, Finding a place called home : a guide to African-American genealogy and historical identity New York, New York : Random House, c1999 FHL 973 F2wd See chapter 8
 * George R. Bentley, A history of the Freedmen's Bureau Reprint. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania, 2016 FHL 973.714 F875b
 * Alabama. Department of Archives and History. Negroes in the Confederate Army, 1860-1907
 * Morgan County. Index to black marriages, 1863-1932
 * Gwendolyn Lynette Hester. Freedmen and colored marriage records : 1865-1890, Sumter County, Alabama. FHL 976.141 V22h

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
 * Alabama State Census, 1866
 * 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.

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