African American Freedmen's Bureau Records

The Bureau's records (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands), kept from 1865-1872, contain a wide range of data about the African American experience during slavery and freedom. Therefore, they are a valuable source for the black family historian. Refugees include many in the local white population.

Introduction
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; aid involved: education (4,300 schools were established), health care (100 hospitals were established), issued food and clothing,operated refugee camps, helped legalize marriages, employment, supervised labor contracts, worked with African American soldiers and sailors and their heirs to secure back pay, bounty payments and pensions, for newly freed African Americans (four million), and to supervise confiscated Southern properties.


 * NARA Freedmen's Bureau Administrative History Note
 * NARA The Freedmen's Bureau, 1865-1872
 * NARA Freedmen's Bureau Resources
 * House of Representatives. 39th Congress. 1st. Session. Ex. Doc. No. 11. Freedmen's Bureau. Message of the President of the United States, transmitting report of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. December 19, 1865...

Jurisdictions
This bureau operated in the states of: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia West Virginia, and Indian Territory (that is Oklahoma) and has records from 1861 to the 1870s. The Freedmen’s Bureau created records at headquarters in Washington, DC, state records and field agents.

Bureau records are divided into the following sets of records:


 * Freedmen's Bureau, Washington Headquarters, Records of the Commissioner, Inventory
 * Freedmen's Bureau, Washington Headquarters, Records of the Commissioner, Inventory


 * Field office records (local)—normally the most useful. However, the commissioner’s records contain lists and reports such as two linear feet of marriage papers. Records from the field offices vary from state to state. Since most freedmen contacted the bureau at the local level, you will find the most genealogical data and clues in field office records



Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau
Mapping the Freedman's Bureau is a new website helping researchers put their ancestors back on the historical landscape where they lived.

Mapping includes:
 * Where Freedman's Bureau offices were located
 * Branch of the Freedman's Saving Bank
 * Freedmen's Bureau Hospitals
 * Freedmen's Schools
 * Contraband Camps
 * Battle sites where men who were in the US colored Troops fought

Value of Records
Because the Bureau's records 1865-1872 contain a wide range of data about the African American experience during slavery and freedom, they are a valuable source for the black family historian. Among the records are registers that give the names, ages, and former occupations of freedmen and names and residences of former owners. In addition, there are marriage registers that provide the names, addresses, ages, and complexions of husbands and wives and their children. For some states there are census lists, details of labor and apprenticeship agreements, back pay records, complaint registers, personal data about black soldiers (including company and regiment), school records, hospital registers, census records, and records of murders committed against freedmen.
 * 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. FHL 973 D25ngs


 * NARA Selected Images of Records
 * Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau Sample Documents

Challenges in Using the Records
Not all of the records are indexed. This is an ongoing project, so check back later.

The record type and quality vary with each state, field office to field office. Freedmen's Bureau Record Types


 * Officers Manuel Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1866
 * Instructions for Keeping the Records & Transacting the Clerical Business
 * Freedmen's Bureau Record Types

Individuals may have changed their names.

Not all records survived or are available in searchable formats.

Organization
The by Elaine Everly and Willna Pacheli of the National Archives [FHL book 973 F23ea; fiche 6002638-40] describes the bureau’s records. They are organized alphabetically by state, there under by offices, and there under by county or town. Part One is about Alabama, Arkansas (including the Oklahoma Indian Territory), the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana. Part Two is about Maryland and Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Part Three is about Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and the Freedmen's branch at of the Adjutant General's Office. National Archives Identifier 434

Discover Freedmen
On Discoverfreedmen.org all of the Freedmen's Bureau collections on FamilySearch can be searched with one click.

National Museum of African American History & Culture

 * Freedmen's Bureau Transcription Project.

Searchable Collections on FamilySearch
Index and Image Collections  Coverage Tables to Indexed Collections 
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1861 - 1872 - at FamilySearch - index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1863 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1862 - 1870 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1872 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1865 - 1874 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * Category:NARA Freedmen's Bureau Records - Coverage Tables

Image Browse Collections  Collection Inventories to Browse Collections 
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1864-1872 -
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1865-1872 - at FamilySearch —
 * 1863-1866 -
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1863-1872 - at FamilySearch — images
 * 1865-1872 - at FamilySearch — images
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1865-1870 - at FamilySearch — images
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1865-1872 -
 * 1872-1878 -
 * Category:NARA Freedmen's Bureau Records - Inventories

Most of the Freedmen's Bureau records have been microfilmed with the exception of some records from the Washington Headquarters. The Family History Library has acquired, the records that have been microfilmed.The microfilm numbers of these records can be found in the FamilySearch Catalog Keyword Search using the search phrase “Bureau of Refugees” www.FamilySearch.org Images of these records are also available.

 Field Office Bureau Personnel Coverage Tables 
 * Alabama
 * Arkansas
 * Florida
 * Georgia
 * Kentucky
 * Louisiana
 * Mississippi
 * North Carolina
 * South Carolina
 * Tennessee
 * Texas
 * Virginia

Reference

 * Washington, Reginald. Black Family Research; Records of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives Reference Information Paper 108. National Archives and Records Administration Washington, D.C. Revised 2010.


 * Davis, Robert Scott Jr.,Freedmen's Bureau and Other Reconstruction Sources for Research in African-American Families, 1865-1874. Journal of the Afro-American Historical And Genealogical Societyy. Volume 9 No. 4.pg 171-176.


 * Bentley, George R. A History of the Freedmen's Bureau. Philadelphia: Octagon Books, 1970.WorldCat
 * Paul Skeels Pierce. The Freedmen's Bureau: A Chapter in the History of Reconstruction.
 * NARA Citations to Record Group 105, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

Government Reports of Bureau Operations
 * Rev Horace James. Annual Report of the Superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina. 1864. with an Appendix. Containing the History and Management of the Freedmen in this Department up to June 1st, 1865. Boston: W.F. Brown & Co., Printers, 1865.
 * Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. Annual Report of the Assistant Commissioner. For the District of Columbia and West Virginia. For the Year Ending October 22, 1867. (Washington, 1867)
 * John Watson Alvord. 1807-1880; United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Fifth semi-annual report on schools for freedmen: January 1, 1868. Washington: Government Printing Office,1868.
 * John Watson Alvord 1807-1880. United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands Ninth semi-annual report on schools for freedmen: January 1, 1870.Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870.
 * J. W. Alvord. Letters from the South, Relating to the Condition of Freedmen Addressed to Major General O.O. Howard. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1870.
 * Thomas W. Conway. The Freedmen of Louisiana. Final Report of the Bureau of Free Labor, Department of the Gulf. Major General E.R.S. Canby, Commanding. Printed at the New Orleans, Times Book and Job Office, 1865.
 * John Eaton, United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Dept. of the Tennessee and State of Arkansas Report of the General Superintendent of Freedmen, Department of the Tennessee and State of ... Memphis, Tenn.: 1865
 * L. Pierce. The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina. Official Reports of Edward L. Pierce. New York: Rebellion Record, 1863.

Records of Civil War Special Agents of the Treasury Department, 1861-1866 Record Group 366
 * Record Group Description

Freedmen's Bureau Online
The Freedmen’s Bureau Online website includes numerous online database indexes. Select among the variety of databases mostly based on locality or by topic such as marriages, labor contracts, or murders. However, this online site does not include all the available records from the Freedmen's Bureau.

Content

 * Records Relating to Murders
 * Records Relating to Freedmen's Labor
 * Marriage Records: Most of these records are divided up by the state, then by the area, and then by the marriage date, month, or year of marriage. (These records can be found on the homepage under the contents heading at the left of the screen.)
 * To find state-specific collections, go to the homepage and there is a list of states under the contents heading at the middle left of the screen. (Examples of some of these collections are: Alabama: Petition of Colored Citizens from Mobile, Alabama; Mississippi: Registers of Indentures of Colored Orphans, Aug. 1865 - May 1866; Tennessee: Index to Freedman's Labor Contracts between Tennessee Freedmen and employers in Kentucky.)


 * This site lists many other search sites for African American histories and genealogy websites.
 * Their on-line bookstore carries many useful books of interest.

Using the site
Type a surname or name or term in question in the search site box. (Examples: Jones, Smith, etc. for surname searches OR land, marriages, etc. for keyword searches)


 * 1) Documents which seem a “best” match appears.
 * 2) Click on desired match.

Tips
Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:


 * United States Freedmen’s Bureau Letters (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * United States Freedmen’s Bureau Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * United States Freedman's Bank Registers 1865-1874 (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Southern States Slavery and Bondage Collections

Websites

 * Freedmen's Bureau Records of Field Offices 1863-1878'' index and images at Ancestry.com. This database contains about 102,010 personal names from field office records for Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, New Orleans, and North Carolina. Information available in the database includes: name, record type, year, and field office location. Family History Centers and the Family History Library have limited access to this index. There is a subscription fee for home use.
 * Documents Associated with the Freedmen's Bureau
 * Officers of the Freedmen;s Bureau By State