Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
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 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.

This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1907 Records of the Field Offices for the State of Mississippi, 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 state level staff officers; Superintendent of Education, Assistant Inspector General, Disbursing Officer and Quartermaster, Surgeon in Chief, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.


 * Records with Freedmen and Refugee Names

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



The state Districts, under Sub-Commissioners as of March 1866
 * District of Columbus: Tippah, Tishomingo, Pontotoc, Itawamba, Chickasaw, Monroe, Oktibbeha and Lowndes Counties. HQ Columbus
 * District of Meridian: Winston, Noxubee, Neshoba, Kemper, Newton, Lauderdale, Jasper, Clark, Jones and Wayne Counties. HQ Meridian
 * District of Jackson: Hinds, Copiah, Simpson, Smith, Scott, Rankin, Leake, Madison, Attala and Holmes Counties. HQ Jackson
 * District of Brookhaven: Lawrence, Pike, Amite, Covington, and Marion Counties. HQ at Brookhaven
 * District of Natchez: Adams, Wilkinson, Franklin, and Jefferson Counties. HQ at Natchez
 * District of Pass Christian: Perry, Green, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties: HQ at Pass Christian
 * District of Vicksburg: Warren, Claiborne, Yazoo, Issaquena, Washington, Bolivar, Sunflower, Coahoma and Tunica Counties. HQ at Vicksburg
 * District of Grenada: Carroll, Choctaw, Tallahatchie, Yalobusha, Calhoun, Panola, Lafayette, Desoto and Marshall Counties. HQ at Grenada

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 fourth district and links to record descriptions.


 * War Department. Fourth Military District. 3/11/1867-3/16/1869 Arkansas, Mississippi
 * Final Report and List of Registration of Voters in Mississippi, 1867. NAID 1768509.

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. FHL 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.

 Officer's Manual
 * The following links will provide a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen's Bureau collections. Freedmen's Bureau Record Types

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

See Also
 * Col. Samuel Thomas. '' Digest of Orders and Instructions to Sub-Commissioners. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Mississippi, Vicksburg: Freedmen's Bureau Press Print, 1866

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
 * The name of a relative or date of the event
 * 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?

 * Use the information to find vital records such as birth, christening, marriage, and death
 * Search for the family in census records
 * Search land and probate records

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
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images. 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
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in the state of Mississippi.
 * Mississippi Guided Research
 * Mississippi Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research

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

Related Wiki Articles

 * African American Introduction
 * Researching African American Genealogy
 * Quick Guide to African American Records
 * African American Research
 * African American Freedmen's Bureau Records

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Paula K. Byers, ed. African American genealogical sourcebook New York, New York : Gale Research, c1995 FHL 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 FHL 973 N26z 2nd Floor Reference Area
 * Records of the field offices for the state of Mississippi, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872
 * Mississippi labor contract index : Freedman listing index
 * An index to Hinds County, Mississippi Freedmen's Bureau labor contracts
 * G.L. Smith, comp. Civil War brides & grooms of Vicksburg, Mississippi : copies of records from the Freedmen's Bureau records
 * Apprenticeships of freedman (former slaves), 1866-1869. Lowndes County, Mississippi
 * Carroll County, Voting/election, poll lists, 1867-1891

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.