Texas, 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 M1912Records of the Field Offices for the State of Texas, 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; Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

A table listing where the Texas field offices were located, the names of the employees, what office they held, and the dates they served can be found at Freedmen’s Bureau Texas Field Office Personnel.

Records with Freedmen and Refugees Names
 * Office of the Assistant Commissioner, Roll 1, Unidentified Volume Relating to Patients and Accounts
 * Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Rolls 7-9, Reports of Persons and Articles Hired
 * Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 11, Orders for Transportation, Accounts, 6 volumes
 * Austin, Roll 12, Register of Complaints, Register of Contracts
 * Bastrop, Roll 13, Register of Complaints
 * Belton, Roll 13, Register of Complaints
 * Boston, Roll 13, Register of Complaints
 * Boston, Roll 14, Affidavits and Settlements
 * Brenham, Roll 14, Register of Complaints
 * Bryan, Roll 14, Register of Complaints
 * Centerville, Roll 14, Register of Complaints
 * Columbia, Roll 15, Register of Complaints, Register of Contracts
 * Columbus, Roll 18, Register of Complaints
 * Crockett, Roll 19, Register of Complaints
 * Gonzales, Roll 21, Register of Complaints
 * Halletsville, Roll 21, Register of Complaints
 * Houston, Roll 22, Register of Complaints, 3 volumes, Receipts
 * Huntsville, Roll 23, Register of Complaints
 * Jefferson, Roll 23, Register of Complaints
 * La Grange, Post 23, Register of Complaints, Evidence in the Case of F. D. Ackerman
 * Liberty, Roll 24, Register of Complaints
 * Lockhart, Roll 24, Register of Complaints
 * Marlin, Roll 24, Register of Complaints
 * Marshall, Roll 24, Register of Complaint
 * Meridian, Roll 24, Register of Complaints
 * Nacogdoches, Roll 24, Register of Complaints
 * Palestine, Roll 25, Register of Complaints
 * Richmond, Roll 25, Contracts
 * San Augustine, Roll 25, Register of Complaints, Register of Contracts
 * Seguin, Roll 26, Register of Complaints
 * Sterling, Roll 26, Register of Complaints
 * Sumpter, Roll 26, Register of Complaints
 * Tyler, Roll 27, Register of Complaints
 * Waco, Roll 27, Register of Complaints
 * Wharton, Roll 28, Records Relating to Complaints, Accounts

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 links below to the National Archives Catalog will provide a history of the fifth district and links to record descriptions.


 * War Department. Fifth Military District. 3/11/1867-3/31/1870	Texas, Louisiana
 * Letters sent and received by the Department of Texas, the District of Texas, and the 5th Military District, 1856-1870, NARA M1188

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.

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.

 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 necessry 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 see the inventory, click on the following link. Inventory

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name and or age of the person
 * Freedmen would have determined what their name would be and may have changed it multiple times.
 * The location or name of 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 Freedmen’s Bureau Texas Field Office Personnel table for this state.  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 record
 * Use the age to calculate a birth date and to find other records such as birth, christening, census, land and death records
 * Use the information to find additional family members. Witnesses or bondsmen were usually relatives
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family
 * Use the information to find voter registrations. - See related websites

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 in an area search
 * 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
 * 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. Try searching for these names as well

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

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

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Paula K. Byers, ed.African American genealogical sourcebook New York, New York : Gale Research, c1995 FS Library 973 F27afg See pages 68-98 The Freedmen's Bureau
 * Richard Zuczek, ed. Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era 2 volumes. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press, ©2006 FS Library 973 N26z 2nd Floor Reference Area
 * general editor, Kenneth M. Stampp ; associate editors, Randolph H. Boehm and Martin P. Schipper ; guide compiled by Martin P. Schipper, A guide to records of ante-bellum Southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War : Series G, Selections from the Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin 5 volumes. Frederick, Maryland : University Publications of America, c1987, c1998-1999, c2001 FS Library 975 H2sm ser. G
 * 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 Library 973.714 F875b
 * Records of the field offices for the state of Texas, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1870: M1912
 * Records of the Assistant Commissioner for Texas, 1865-1869: M821
 * Michelle M. Mears. And grace will lead me home : African American freedmen communities of Austin, Texas, 1865 to 1928.Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press, c2009 FS Library 976.431/A1 F2m
 * Texas 1867 special voter's registration : includes information for 1867-1869
 * Cooke County, List of registered voters, 1867-1869
 * Hunt County, List of registered voters, 1867-1872
 * Navarro County, voter registers, 1867-1869
 * Nueces County, List of registered voters, 1867-1872
 * Polk County, Registered voters, 1867
 * Smith County, Index to list of registered voters, 1867-1869; list of registered voters, 1872
 * Mortality schedules of Texas (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880); mortality schedules of Utah (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.