South Carolina, Freedmen 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 M1910 Records of the Field Offices for the State of South Carolina, 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; Superintendent of Education, Commissary of Subsistence, Inspector, Medical Officer, Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Claim Division, General Collecting Agent, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.


 * Records with Freedmen and Refugees Names

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

State Sub-Districts as of March 10, 1868 Related Collection -National Archives Catalog
 * Charleston: Williamsburg; Georgetown, Horry; St. Peters Parish, main land, Beaufort; Prince Williams, and St. Lukes Parish, main land; Hilton Head, Pickney, Daufuskie, Bull, Savage, Lemon, Daw and Spring Islands, and all the Sea Islands of Beaufort District west of Broad River; St. Helena, Ladies, Port Royal, Paris and all Sea Islands of Beaufort District east of Broad River; St. Bartholomews and St. Pauls Parish, main land. Colleton District; Johns, Wadmalaw, and Edisto Islands, and Sea Islands of Colleton District; St. George Dorchester (Colleton,) St. James, Goose Creek; St. Michaels and St. Philips, (Charleston) St. Andrews (Berkeley); Christ Christ and St. James Santee Parishes, (Berkeley); St. Thomas Parish (Berkeley); St. Johns and St. Stevens (Berkeley); Shaw Orphan Asylum, Charleston; Soup Houses, Charleston.
 * Darlington: Darlington; Chesterfield, Marlboro; Marion.
 * Columbia: York, Chester; Fairfield, Richland, Lexington, Lancaster; Orangeburg; Kershaw; Sumter; Union; Newberry; Clarendon.
 * Aiken: Abbeville; Barnwell; Edgefield.
 * Laurensville: Anderson; Greenville; Pickens; Laurens; Spartanburg.
 * NARA Related Photograph of Store for Freedmen Beaufort, South Carolina
 * NARA Related Photograph of Office for Freedmen, Beaufort, South Carolina

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 second district and links to record descriptions.


 * War Department. Second Military District. 3/11/1867-7/28/1868 North Carolina, South Carolina
 * Reports Received from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Concerning its Operations in the District of South Carolina, 1867-1868. NAID 4746032.
 * Reports of Outrages, 1865-1867. NAID 4746080
 * Trimonthly Reports Received of Rations Issued to the Destitute in North and South Carolina, 5/1867-12/1867. NAID 4746100

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 
 * 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 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

 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:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * Freedmen would have determined what their name would be and may have changed it multiple times. See Recall Their Names: The Personal Identity of Enslaved South Carolinians, Charleston, County Public Library
 * The approximate age of your ancestor
 * The place where your ancestor lived
 * The name of the 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 Freedmen’s Bureau South Carolina 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.

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 information found to search for the family in census records
 * Use the information found to search for the family in land and probate records
 * Use the information found to search for the family in church records
 * Use the information found to search for the family in voter registrations.
 * Use the information found to search for the family in additional state and county 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
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor
 * 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 research your family in the state of South Carolina.
 * South Carolina Guided Research
 * South Carolina Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research

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 also 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
 * 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 South Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872: M1910
 * Rations issued by Freedmen's Bureau : Sumter District : March 1867
 * Rupert Sargent Holland, ed. Letters and diary of Laura M. Towne; written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862-1884.Cambridge at the Riverside Press, 1912, reprint. New York, New York : Negro Universities Press, 1969. FS Library 921.73 T661t
 * Austa Malinda French. Slavery in South Carolina and the exslaves, or, The Port Royal mission. New York : W.M. French, 1862. 1 v. FS Library 975.7 F2fa
 * Herbert G. Gutman. The black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925 New York, New York : Vintage Books, c1976 FS Library 973 F2gu
 * general editor, Kenneth M. Stampp ; associate editor, Randolph Boehm ; guide compiled by Martin Schipper, A guide to records of ante-bellum Southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War. : Series A, Selections from the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina Frederick, Maryland : University Publications of America, c1985 FS Library 975 H2sm ser. A
 * Agriculture, industry, social statistics and mortality schedules for South Carolina, 1850-1880
 * LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson.A Guide to researching African American ancestors in Laurens County, South Carolina and selected finding aids Bloomington, Indiana : Xlibris, 2018 FS Library 975.731 D27g

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.