Louisiana, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 - FamilySearch Historical Records

Why Should I Look at This Collection?
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 Article 
 * 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.

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publications M1905 Louisiana Records of the Field Offices for the State of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands and M1483 New OrleansRecords of the New Orleans Field Offices, 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; Bounty Agent,Commissary of Subsistence, Provost Marshall General of Freedmen, Quartermaster, Surgeon in Chief, Plantation Department,  first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

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

 Selected Staff Officer records with Freedmen and Refugees names

 Offices of Staff Officers(Bounty Agent)
 * Roll 1, Registers of Claims Received, 3 volumes, Registers of Claimants, volume 1
 * Roll 2, Registers of Claimants, volume 2
 * Roll 3, Registers of Payments, 3 volumes

Provost Marshall General of Freedmen
 * Roll 7, Registers of Proceedings in Freedmen's Court, 2 volumes, Registers of Complaints, 3 volumes, Complaints, 2 volumes
 * Roll 8, Registers of Houses Occupied by Soldiers' Families, Registers of Concepts, Registers of Refugees, Indentures of Orphan Children
 * Roll 9, Registers of Contracts

Subordinate Office Plantation Department
 * Roll 27, Registers of Black Persons, volumes 1-2,A-D
 * Roll 28, Registers of Black Persons, volumes 3-7,E-N
 * Roll 29, Registers of Black Persons, volumes 8-11,O-Z
 * Roll 29, Freedmen's Employment Registers, 2 volumes
 * Roll 30-39, Registers and Payrolls of Freedmen Employed on Plantations
 * Roll 39, Freedmen's Labor Contracts
 * Roll 40-51, Labor Contracts (Agreement with Freedmen)
 * Roll 52, Lists of Contracts with Freedmen
 * Roll 52, Daily Record of Cotton Picked on the Corondolet Plantation
 * Roll 52, Register of Payrolls of Freedmen on Plantations

Surgeon in Chief (report)
 * Roll 24, Weekly Reports Received from Surgeons Concerning Cholera Cases
 * Roll 25, Registers of Patients
 * Roll 26, Employee Contracts

New Orleans Freedmen’s Hospital Home Colonies
 * Roll 7, Register of Contrbands in Corps d’ Afrique General Hospital, Register of Patients, Registers of Sick and Wounded, Register of Disabled Destitutes Sick, etc., Register of Interment at Freedmen’s Cemetery, Register of Prescriptions

Bragg Home Colony Greenville Colony McHatton Home Colony Rost Home Colony
 * Roll 67, Register of Departures, Registers of Rations and Clothing Issued, Register of Marriages, Registers of Applications for Laborers
 * Roll 79, Register for Contrabands
 * Roll 83, Registers of Arrivals and Departures
 * Roll 98, Register of Arrivals and Departures, Records of Births and Deaths, Register of Applications for Laborers, Register of Sick and Wounded Refugees and Freedmen

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 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. Inventory Collection Table

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name and or approximate age of your ancestor
 * The residence or 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.

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

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Use the age or estimated birth date to determine an approximate birth date to find vital records such as birth, baptism, marriage and death
 * Use the information found in the record to find land, probate and immigration records
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in census records

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives
 * 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
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby town or county
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names

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

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Records of the field offices for the state of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1863-1872, M1905
 * Records of the Freedmen's Hospital and New Orleans area field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1863-1869, M1483
 * New Orleans. Mayor's Office. Register of free colored persons entitled to remain in state, 1840-1864
 * New Orleans, Mayor. Assessment of property and census of slaves and their owners, 1837
 * Orleans Parish. Clerk of Court. Freedom papers (emancipation dockets, 1827-1915)
 * C. Peter Ripley. Slaves and freedmen in Civil War Louisiana. Baton Rouge, Louisiana : LSU, c1976. FHL 976.3 F2r
 * Harry F. Dill and William Simpson. Some slaveholders and their slaves, Union Parish, Louisiana, 1839-1865.Bowie, Maryland : Heritage Books, Inc., c1997. FHL 976.389 U3d

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
 * 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.