African American Freedmen's Bureau Records

African American Online Genealogy 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. The Collection is located in the National Archives in Record Group 105, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1861-1880. National Archives Catalog NAID 434.

Introduction
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created by Congress on March 3, 1865 at the end of the American Civil War to aid the newly freed enslaved people (freedmen) and other refugees. It was created to supervise relief efforts, including education (4,300 schools were established), health care (100 hospitals were established), food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments, and pensions for soldiers and sailors. The Bureau also helped reunite families. The Bureau operations were terminated in 1872.

Administrative Histories
 * George R. Bentley. A History of the Freedmen's Bureau. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1955. reprint University of Pennsylvania Press FS Library 973.714 F875b
 * Paul Skeels Peirce. ''The Freedmen's Bureau. A Chapter in the History of Reconstruction (Iowa City, Iowa, 1904) reprint Kessinger Publishing

For more information see:
 * NARA African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau
 * NARA Freedmen's Bureau Administrative History Note.
 * Links to Freedmen's Bureau Resources
 * Citations to Record Group 105, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Archives Library Information Center (ALIC) NARA

United States Congress
 * U.S. Senate. Committee on Slavery and Freedmen. 1.13.1864-3.3.1965
 * U.S. House of Representatives. Select Committee on Reconstruction. 7.31.1867-3.2.1871
 * Guide to House Records - Records of the Judiciary Committee and Related Committees - Committee on Freedmen Affairs

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.

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

 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 African American genealogy. See Freedmen's Bureau Record Types for a detailed listing of records created by the Freedmen's Bureau records. Some Bureau records include:
 * Registers (listing names, ages, former occupations of freedmen, and names and residences of former owners)
 * Marriage registers (listing names, addresses, ages, and complexions of husbands, wives, and their children)
 * Census lists
 * Applications of rations or relief
 * Labor and apprenticeship contracts
 * Back pay records
 * Registers of complaints
 * Personal data about black soldiers (including company and regiment)
 * School records
 * Registers of patients
 * Medical records
 * Registers of bounty claimants
 * Court records
 * Claim records
 * Records of murders committed against freedmen
 * Records relating to property restoration and homesteads

Here are some examples of records:
 * NARA Selected Images of Records
 * Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau Sample Documents

 Challenges in Using the Records 

There are some challenges to using these records:


 * Records are limited in scope and time period they cover.
 * Not all of the records are indexed. Some record collections can only be searched image by image.
 * The record type and quality vary with each state and field office.
 * Individuals may have changed their names.
 * Not all records survived or are available in searchable formats.

Organization
The Freedmen’s Bureau created records at the headquarters in Washington, DC, state offices, and field agents. Field office records (local) usually contain more genealogical data.

 Washington Headquarters  Commissioner (Oliver O. Howard)
 * Freedmen's Bureau, Washington Headquarters, Records of the Commissioner, Inventory
 * Offices and Divisions'''
 * Division of Records (Official acts of the Commissioner)- Assistant Adjutant General
 * Finance Division- Chief Disbursing Officer:Lt. Col. George W. Bulloch;Major J.M. Brown
 * Land Division- Assistant Adjutant General William Fowler
 * Medical Division- Chief Medical Officer Caleb W. Honer;L.A. Edwards; Robert Reyburn
 * Claims Division- Assistant Adjutant General William Fowler; William P. Drew
 * Education Division- Rev. J.W. Alvord
 * Chief Quartermaster- Capt. Joseph M. Brown;Brevet Brigadier General Henry Whittlesey


 *  State and Local 
 * Assistant Commissioner
 * Correspondence
 * Issuances
 * Reports
 * Other Records


 * Superintendent of Education
 * Correspondence
 * Issuances
 * Reports
 * Other Records


 * Offices of Staff Offices
 * Subordinate (Local) Field Offices

National Archives Preliminary Inventory
The by Elaine Everly and Willna Pacheli of the National Archives describes the Bureau’s records. The volumes are arranged alphabetically by state. The records of the states are arranged in the following order: "Office of the Assistant Commissioner" then by "Offices of Staff Officers including the "Superintendent of Education" and by "Subordinate Field Offices."


 * Pt 1 Alabama-Louisiana
 * Pt 2 Maryland-South Carolina
 * Pt 3 Tennessee-Virginia and Freedmen's Branch

National Archives Catalog
 * Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, RG 105 NAID 434

Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau
Mapping the Freedman's Bureau is a website helping researchers place their ancestors in the historical landscape.

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

Mapping Occupation

 * Force, Freedom, and the Army in Reconstruction - University of Georgia

Discover Freedmen - FamilySearch
On Discoverfreedmen.org all of the Freedmen's Bureau collections on FamilySearch can be searched with one click.
 * NARA Notes for freedmen's Bureau Project Celebration

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

Collections on FamilySearch
Most of the Freedmen's Bureau records have been digitized and/or indexed on FamilySearch with the exception of some records from the Washington Headquarters. Index and Image Collections:
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1861 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872 - index and images
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872 index and images
 * 1863 - 1872
 * 1865 - 1872
 * 1862 - 1870
 * 1865 - 1874
 * 1865 - 1878 U.S., Freedmen's Bureau Records, 1865-1878 at Ancestry - index & images, ($)

Coverage Tables to Indexed Collections:
 * NARA Freedmen's Bureau Records - Coverage Tables

Image Browse Collections:

 Commissioner Assistant Commissioner Superintendent of Education and Division of Education
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872 United States, Freedmen's Bureau, Records of the Superintendent of Education and of the Division of Education, 1865-1872

Field Offices Freedman's Branch
 * 1865-1872
 * 1864-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1863-1866
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1863-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1872
 * 1865-1870
 * 1872-1878

Collection Inventories to Browse Collections:
 * NARA Freedmen's Bureau Records - Inventories

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

 Government Reports of Bureau Operations
 * 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.

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.

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.

Library of Congress

 * The Freedmen's Bureau

Resources
Wiki articles on African American research are found at:
 * African American Genealogy
 * Quick Guide to African American Records
 * Researching African American Genealogy
 * African American Migration
 * African American Slavery and Bondage
 * Southern States Slavery and Bondage Collections FamilySearch Library
 * African Americans in the 1867 Voter Registration Lists (National Institute)

For more information:
 * 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. FS Library 973.714 F875bWorldCat
 * 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

Civil War Pre-Bureau Operations
Contraband Camps
 * Contraband (American Civil War) Wikipedia
 * Interactive Map of Contraband Camps - University of Pennsylvania
 * CRGIS Contraband Slave Camp Mapping Project - National Park Service
 * The Forgotten:The Contraband of America and the Road to Freedom - National Trust for Historic Preservation
 * Contrabands of War - African American Fugitives to Union Lines - Library of Congress
 * Slaves Declared Contrabands of War - American Antiquarian Society
 * Contraband of War - The Marines' Museum
 * Refugee Crisis in Civil War American - PBS
 * Contraband Camps - Tennessee
 * Contraband Camps - North Carolina History Project

Contraband Lists
 * African American Contraband Records The lists will be located in the Union Provost Marshall records published on FamilySearch

 Publications
 * Louis S. Gerteis. '' From Contraband to Freedmen. Federal Policy toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865. (1973)
 * Silvana R. Siddali.From Property to Person Slavery and the Confiscation Acts, 1861-1862 Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005
 * Henry Lee Swint, ed. Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps. (Nashville, 1966)
 * Amy Murrell Taylor. Embattled Freedom. Journeys through the Civil War Slave Refugee Camps. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018.
 * Chandra Manning. ''Troubled Refuge. Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War. ALfred A. Knopf, 2017.
 * Patricia Click. Time Full of Trial: The Roanoke Island Freemen's Colony, 1862-1867. (Chapel Hill, 2001)

Articles
 * Chandra Manning.Working for Citizenship in Civil War Contraband Camps. The Journal of the Civil War Era. 4 #2 (June 2014): 172-204.
 * Martha A. Bigelow.  Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley, 1861-1865. Civil War History 8 #1 (March 1862): 38-47.

Government Reports
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * L. Pierce. The Freedmen of Port Royal, South Carolina. Official Reports of Edward L. Pierce. New York: Rebellion Record, 1863.
 * 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
 * James E. Yeatman. ''A Report on the Condition of the Freedmen of the Mississippi, presented to The Western Sanitary Commission, December 17, 1863. Saint Louis, 1864
 * James E. Yeatman.''Suggestions of a Plan of Organization for free Labor, and the Leasing of Plantations along the Mississippi River, ...Saint Louis, 1864
 * James E. Yeatman. ''A Report on the Condition of the Freedmen of the Mississippi, presented to The Western Sanitary Commission, December 17, 1863. Saint Louis, 1864
 * James E. Yeatman.''Suggestions of a Plan of Organization for free Labor, and the Leasing of Plantations along the Mississippi River, ...Saint Louis, 1864
 * S.G. Howe. ''The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West. Report of the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission. Boston: Wright & Potter, printers, 1864
 * John Eaton. Grant, Lincoln, and the Freedmen. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1907 Work for the Contrabands and Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley. See also reprint edition. John David Smith and Michael J Larsen, eds. Voices of the Civil War Series. University of Tennessee Press, 2022.


 * Records of Civil War Special Agents of the Treasury Department, 1861-1866. Record Group 366
 * First Special Agency. 9.11.1863-1866. Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas
 * Second Special Agency. 9.11.1863-7.29.1864. Virginia, North Carolina
 * Second Special Agency. Natchez District. 7.30.1864-ca.1866.
 * Second Special Agency. Helena District. 7.30.1864-1866.
 * Third Special Agency. 9.11.1863-7.29.1864. North Carolina
 * Third Special Agency. Office of the Special Agent at Vicksburg, Mississippi. 7.28.1864-1866.
 * Fourth Special Agency. 7.29.1864-1866. Texas
 * Fourth Special Agency. Office of the Special Agent for Louisiana, and Texas. ca. 7.28.1865-ca. 10.3.1865
 * Fifth Special Agency. 9.11.1863-7.29.1864. Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas
 * Sixth Special Agency. 7.29.1864-1866. North Carolina
 * Seventh Special Agency. 7.29.1864-ca. 1868. Virginia, North Carolina
 * Eighth Special Agency. 4.25.1865-1866. Georgia, South Carolina, Savannah, Ga.
 * Ninth Special Agency. 4.25.1865-1866. Alabama, Florida


 * Office of the Supervising Special Agent at New Orleans, Louisiana. Plantation Bureau. 7.29.1864-ca. 1865
 * Division of West Mississippi, Department of the Gulf. Northern Division of Louisiana. 2.9.1865-5.17.1865

'''Department of the Treasury. Division of Captured Property, Claims and Lands. Record Group 56'''
 * United States, National Archives, Department of the Treasury. Division of Captured Property, Claims and Lands

 Freedmen Relief Associations, Selected 
 * Freedmen aid societies were civilian benevolent associations that provided support and assistance to the Freedmen's Bureau.
 * The American Freedmen's Aid Commission, New York City
 * Report by the Committee of the Contraband's Relief Commission of Cincinnati, Ohio
 * Inventory of the Friends Freedmen's Association Records, 1863-1982. Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
 * New England Freedmen's Aid Society Records, 1862-1878. Guide to the Collection. Massachusetts Historical Society
 * Extracts from letters of teachers and superintendents of the New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen.
 * Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association
 * Report of the Pittsburgh Relief Committee : having in charge the collection and distribution of funds, provisions, and other supplies for the sufferers by yellow fever in the South-Western States, in the summer and fall of 1878.
 * First Annual Report of the Port Royal Relief Committee...
 * Guide to the Southern Famine Relief Commission Records, 1867-1868. MS 2430. New York Historical Society Museum Library
 * Southern Famine Relief Commission records, 1867. ArchiveGrid. New York Historical Society
 * United States Sanitary Commission Records, 1861-1878. MssCol 3101. New York Public Library.
 * A report on the condition of the freedmen of the Mississippi:presented to the Western Sanitary Commission, December 17th, 1863.

Online Resources

 * Discover Freedmen
 * U.S., Freedmen's Bureau Records of Field Offices, 1863-1878 ($)
 * U.S., Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records, 1846-1867 ($); ''Also at : Findmypast ($)
 * U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1871 ($)
 * NARA Links to Freedmen's Bureau Resources
 * Last Seen: FindingFamily After Slavery