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

Record Description
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 corresponds with NARA microfilm publication M1911, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Tennessee, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872. For a list of Freedmen's Bureau personnel see appendix in the descriptive pamphlet. A descriptive pamphlet

Record History, Content and Use
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)

Search the Collection
To search the collection by image ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "Freedmen's Bureau Office or Subordinate Field Office Location" ⇒Select the appropriate "NARA Roll Number-Contents" which takes you to the images.

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Related Websites

 * Freedmen's Bureau Records: An Overview
 * National Archives Resources for Genealogists
 * Publications of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project
 * The Freedmen's Bureau Online. Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.
 * Publications of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project
 * Suffolk University

Related Wiki Articles

 * African American Freedmen's Bureau Records
 * Quick Guide to African American Records
 * African American Research
 * Tennessee

Citations for This Collection
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