United States, Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records, 1865-1872

What is in This Collection?

This collection contains index & images of records identified as miscellaneous from field office records of the Freedmen's Bureau which will include many different record types.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established by 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.

To locate additional information on the indexed collections in this publication see the coverage table section and related coverage table link located in this article under the heading Collection Content. The links in the state column will direct you to the Collection Details page.

Records Created by the Bureau
The 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. See Freedmen's Bureau Record Types for a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen's Bureau collections.

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.

• United States, National Archives, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual. The following Wiki articles are transcriptions of portions of the 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

The National Museum of African American History & Culture 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
• Browse Projects shows the progress of the transcription project

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  1866 Child identified

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  1866-7 Marriage index

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  1867 Report of Employees

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  1868 Legal issues

Coverage Table

For a list of the records indexed and their localities see United States Freedmen's Bureau Miscellaneous Records Coverage Table - FamilySearch Historical Records.