LibGuides: African American Family History: Reconstruction Era Records

Freedmen’s Bureau Records

About the Freedmen's Bureau

Towards the end of the Civil War, the U.S. federal government established the established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (commonly referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau). The Freedmen's Bureau operated out of the War Department and lasted from 1865-1872.

In the years following the Civil War, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen's Bureau) provided assistance to tens of thousands of former slaves and impoverished whites in the Southern States and the District of Columbia. The war had liberated nearly four million slaves and destroyed the region's cities, towns, and plantation-based economy. It left former slaves and many whites dislocated from their homes, facing starvation, and owning only the clothes they wore. The challenge of establishing a new social order, founded on freedom and racial equality, was enormous.

Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Impact of These Records

These records present the genealogist and social historian with an unequaled wealth of information that extends the reach of black family studies. Documents such as local censuses, marriage records, and medical records provide freedpeople's full names and former masters; Federal censuses through 1860 listed slaves only statistically under the master's household.

Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Repositories Providing Access to the Digitized Records

Digitized copies of the Freedmen's Bureau records available at three different online repositories. None of these provide an every-name index. Be sure to consult the finding aids below for assistance on finding the records most relevant to your ancestral locations. For additional help learning how to find and analyze these records, consult the "Learning More" tab to the right.

All of the following repositories make the collection freely available, however they have been fully indexed yet.

FamilySearch Catalog: Freedmen's Bureau
This search query link will bring up all Freedmen's Bureau sub-collections available on FamilySearch, as well as any secondary sources. NOTE: You will more easily find these records by using the FamilySearch Wiki finding aid for the collection.
SOVI: Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
The Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVI) provides online access to the digitized record, which are part of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Use the directory in the left sidebar to drill down to the Field Office records relevant to your ancestors. A title page summary from the Descriptive Pamphlet is located at the beginning of each collection.
Internet Archive: Records of the field offices for the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has made digitized copies of the Freedmen's Bureau records available on the Internet Archive.

Finding Aids

These archival finding aids are essential for understanding the organization and arrangement of the Freedmen's Bureau collection, regardless of which repository you use to access the digitized records.

Mapping the Freedmen's Bureau
This website developed by Angela Walton-Raji and Toni Carrier helps you locate on a digital map the Freedmen's Bureau field office/s closest to where your ancestors lived. It provides sample documents to help you understand the types of records found in the collection. The website also has a Research Guide for each state, which helps you access the Descriptive Pamphlet for each state, and provides you with the relevant microfilm records for each state.
FamilySearch Wiki: African American Freedmen's Bureau Records
This finding aid provides background information about the Freedmen's Bureau, the records, and where to find the records. Scroll down to the "Accessing the Records" section to get links to the specific collection on FamilySearch that pertains to the Field Office/s relevant to your ancestor.
SOVI Item Record: Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
This item record from the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives (SOVI) explains the hierarchical organization of the bureau, which is helpful for understanding the records. Click the "Digital Content" link in the left sidebar to access the digital records on SOVI
NARA Research Guide: African American Records: Freedmen's Bureau
This guide by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration outlines the hierarchical administrative structure of the Freedmen's Bureau (from Headquarters down to the Field Offices, and links to the Descriptive Pamphlets (DP) for each level. Find the DP for your ancestor's state. It also includes DPs for particular collections whose records were sent to and held in Washington, D.C.

Recommended Webinars & Video Tutorials

Legacy Family Tree Webinars: Freedmen's Bureau Records ($)
Legacy Family Tree Webinars has a robust library of recorded webinars (with handouts) available to subscribers. Live webinars are available free to the public. These recorded webinars pertain to the Freedmen's Bureau records.

About the Freedman's Bank

The Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, popularly known as the Freedman's Bank, was incorporated by Congress on March 3, 1865, and the bank maintained some 37 offices in 17 states, including the District of Columbia.

While the failure of the Freedman's Bank was tragic and left many African Americans with feelings of distrust of the American banking system, the records created by the bank are a rich source of documentation for black family research for the period immediately following the American Civil War.

What makes these records so important are the thousands of signature cards that contain personal data about the individual depositors. In addition to the names and ages of depositors, the files can contain their places of birth, residence, and occupations; names of parents, spouses, children, brothers, and sisters; and in some cases, the names of former slave owners. The records however, are not indexed; thus making research in them time consuming and frustrating.

Source: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Learn How to Work with these Records

(Ancestry Academy Lesson) Freedman's Bank Records
This short 2-minute video lesson provides background about the Freedman's Bank, describes the register records, and explains the type of genealogical information that can be found in those records. Access to Ancestry Academy requires a paid or free Ancestry.com account.
(FamilySearch Wiki) African American Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Records
This page explains what the Freedman's Savings and Trust records are, their value to family historians, lists branch locations, explains their content and how to use them, how to access the records, and lists related Internet sites.

Where to Access these Records

FamilySearch: United States, Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 (FREE)
Provides free access to the digitized, indexed, and searchable collection.
Ancestry.com: U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874 ($)
Provides access to the digitizied, indexed, and searchable.

African American Family History