Maryland and Delaware, 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 M1906, Records of the Field Offices for the States of Maryland and Delaware, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872.

Related Websites
National Archives Resources for Genealogists

Related Wiki Articles
United States Freedmen’s Bureau Letters (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Citing Family Search Historical Collections
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Example of a Source Citation for a Record Found in This Collection

 * “Delaware Marriage Records,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (: 4 March 2011), William Anderson and Elizabeth Baynard Henry, 1890; from Delaware, State Marriage Records 23 November 1913, no. 859, Delaware Bureau of Archives and Records Management, Dover; FHL microfilm 2,025,063.


 * “El Salvador Civil Registration,” database and digital images, FamilySearch (: 21 March 2011), Jose Maria Antonio del Carmen, 1880; from La Libertad, San Juan Opico, Nacimientos 1879-1893, image 50; Ministerio Archivo Civil de la Alcaldia Municipal, San Salvador.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org Historical Records. It may include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.

Maryland and Delaware. Field Offices for the States of Maryland and Delaware, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Freedmen's Bureau Letters, 1865-1870. NARA M1906. National Archive and Records Center. Washington, D.C.

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