United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Land and Property Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of images of land and property records created by the Freedmen's Bureau for the years 1865 to 1872. The Bureau was tasked to "supervise and manage all abandoned lands including leasing or supervising the cultivation of abandoned and confiscated property." It also received and acted upon applications for the restoration of property. This collection consists of property-related records including registers, applications, and leases.

To locate additional information on the indexed collections in this publication see both the digital folder number list and coverage table sections and related digital folder number list and coverage table links located in this article under the heading Collection Content. The links in the state column will direct you to the browse collection landing page.

Related Publication
 * Steven Hahn, Steven F. Miller, Susan E. O'Donovan,John C. Rodrigue, and Leslie S. Rowland. Freedom A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867. Series 3: Volume 1. Land and Labor, 1865. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2008. FS Library 973 B4fr ser. 3 v.1

 Related Collections
 * United States, National Archives, Department of the Treasury. Division of Captured Property, Claims and Lands RG 56
 * Maps of Captured and Abandoned Properties, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Arkansas. NAID 960291

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.

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

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records: • 2

Sample Images
 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

Coverage Table
The search results in this collection will identify the National Archives microfilm publication that the indexed image is from along with the film, digital and image numbers. The coverage table will help you determine the specific locality and provide the film notes which should identify the record type. Additional images of bureau records for the locality identified in the table will be found by searching in the browse collection.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * 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 the 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.
 * Freedmen would have determined what their name would be and may have changed it multiple times.

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.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details such as a title, an occupation, or land ownership. Add this new information to your records of each family. You should also look for leads to other records about your ancestors.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add the new information to you records
 * Use the information to search for the family in:
 * Census records
 * Church records
 * Land and probate records
 * 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 United States.
 * United States Guided Research
 * United States Record Finder
 * United States Research Tips and Strategies

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
 * Dee Parmer Woodtor, Finding a place called home : a guide to African-American genealogy and historical identity New York, New York : Random House, c1999 FS Library 973 F2wd See chapter 8
 * 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
 * edited by Richard Zuczek, Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era. 2 volumes. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press, ©2006 FS Library 973 N26z
 * Claude F. Oubre. Forty acres and a mule : the Freedman's Bureau and Black land ownership. Baton Rouge, Louisiana : Louisiana State University Press, 2012. FS Library 973 F2oc
 * Michael L. Lanza, Agrarianism and reconstruction politics : the Southern Homestead Act Baton Rouge, Louisiana : Louisiana State University Press, c1990 FS Library 973 R2lm
 * Case papers of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia relating to the confiscation of property, 1863-1865. M435
 * Letters relating to claims received in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1864-1887 : NARA, RG 56, M503
 * United States. Bureau of Land Management. Tract Books
 * Case files of applications from former Confederates for Presidential pardons ("Amnesty papers"),NARA publication M1003

FamilySearch Historical Records
• 2

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. 3 volumes. Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1973.

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.

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