District of Columbia, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1902,Records of the Field Offices for the District of Columbia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands which is part of Record Group 105 Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.

The images are generally arranged in the order the records were microfilmed with the records of the Assistant Commissioner who oversaw Bureau operations in the state and state level staff officers; Commissary of Subsistence, Inspector General and Disbursing Officer, Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, and Surgeon first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

Records with Freedmen and Refugee Names
 * Freedmen's Village: Roll 21, Register of people arriving at Freedmen's Village, Jan 1, 1867-June 27, 1868. NAID 5686335
 * Washington and Georgetown: Roll 19, Register of freedmen departing Mason's Island, VA, May 18, 1864-Jul 18, 1865
 * Superintendent of Marriages: Roll 12, Register of Marriages,Nov 1866-Jul 1867
 * Washington and Georgetown: Roll 18, Employment registers, Wisewell and East Capital Street Barracks, 1866-1868

Freedmen's Village

 * Freedman's Village near Arlington Heights, Va. July 10th, 1865. Genl. ground Plan No. 9. NAID 305826 Map
 * National Archives Historical Sketch of the Freedmen's Village, 1863-1865
 * National Archives Historical Sketch of the Freedmen's Village, 1872-1900
 * Lindsey Bestebreurtje. Beyond the Plantation: Freedmen, Social Experimentation, and African American Community in Freedmen's Village, 1863-1900. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 126 #3 (2018): 334-365.
 * Ric Murphy and Timothy Stephens. Section 27 and Freedman's Village in Arlington National Cemetery : the African American history of America's most hallowed ground. Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, ©2020 FHL 975.5295/A1 V3m

Freedmen's Hospital

 * Freedmen's Hospital 1870 Census Subdivision East of 1st Street pages 12-18 Patients and Staff
 * Records of the Freedmen's Hospital, 1872-1910. National Archives C148, FamilySearch Catalog
 * Patients and Staff at the Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C. in the Federal Censuses, 1870-1940. NARA

General Information about Freedmen's Bureau Records
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in 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.

 Related Articles 
 * Sharon Batiste Gillins. A Window into the lives of black and white ancestors: Freedmen's Bureau field office records. NGS Magazine 39 #1 (January-March 2013): 34-38.
 * Sharon Batiste Gillins. Navigating Freedmen's Bureau Records for Research Success NGS Magazine 47 #2 (April-June 2021): 27- 35.

Sample Images

 * NARA select Images from Freedmen's Bureau Records

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.
 * The following link will provide a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen’s Bureau collections.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

Collection Inventory Table
Collection descriptions for the browse images may be located in either the published National Archives preliminary inventory with the "Entry No." or the National Archives Catalog Online Public Access Catalog "OPA." with the National Archives Identifier "NAID" number.
 * Collection Inventory Table

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the individual
 * The approximate age of the individual
 * The place where the individual lived

The Freedmen’s Bureau records are a major source of genealogical information about post Civil War African Americans. The records are also a good source to quickly identify a family group and residence.


 * Locate your ancestor in the 1870 Census. Most local Bureau activities ended (except from claims and education) in December 1868


 * Check the records of the local field office in the area(s) where you believe your ancestor lived between June 1865 and December 1868.


 * Determine, if possible, the name of the former enslaved owner. The 1860 Slave Schedule may be helpful. Also consider searching the 1860 and 1870 Agricultural Schedules.


 * The Bureau created many different types of records. Review the record types in the Collection Content section in this article.


 * While searching Bureau records remember to search other records of the local government, including marriage and court records and especially the 1867 or later voter registrations.


 * Consider ancestors who may have been employed as a civilian agent or served as local agent while still in the military. Look for statewide rosters of bureau personnel in the records of Assistant Commissioners.  Others may have worked with aid associations or taught school supported by aid associations in the north.


 * Freedmen would have determined what their name would be and may have changed it multiple times.

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Use the age or estimated birth date to find church and vital records such as birth, baptism, marriage, and death
 * Use the information found in the record to find land, probate and voter registration records
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in censuses
 * Determine if the slave owner kept plantation or account records listing information about their slaves

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby town or county
 * Former slaves may have used multiple names or changed their names until they decided upon one particular name. Search all possible names along with variations or spellings of their known names
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in the state of District of Columbia.
 * District of Columbia Guided Research
 * District of Columbia Record Finder
 * District of Columbia Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research

Other FamilySearch Collections
These collections may have additional materials to help you with your research.

FamilySearch Catalog

 * District of Columbia. Records of the Field Offices
 * District of Columbia. Records of the Assistant Commissioner
 * District of Columbia. Records of the Superintendent of Education
 * Records of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia relating to slaves, 1851-1863 NARA M433 Images
 * Records of the Board of Commissioners for the Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia, 1862-1863 NARA M520 Images
 * Dorothy S. Provine. Compensated emancipation in the District of Columbia : petitions under the Act of April 16, 1862. Westminster, Maryland : Heritage Books, Inc., c2005. FHL 975.3 H2pc
 * Jerry M. Hynson,District of Columbia D.C. Department of Corrections runaway slave book, 1848-1863 : U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia fugitive slave cases, 1862-1863Westminster, Maryland : Willow Bend Books, c1999 FHL 975.3 F2hj
 * United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860
 * Paula K Byers, ed. African American genealogical sourcebook'' New York, New York : Gale Research, c1995 FHL 973 F27afg See pages 68-97 The Freedmen's bureau

FamilySearch Historical Records

 * Records of the Commissioner
 * Records of the Assistant Commissioner
 * Superintendent of Education and the Division of Education Records
 * Freedmen’s Bank
 * United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1860
 * 1870 Census
 * District of Columbia Court and Emancipation Records, 1820-1863

FamilySearch Digital Library

 * Elaine Everly, Willna Pacheli, comp. Preliminary inventory of the records of the field offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands : record group 105.Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1973.
 * Officers' manual : Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned LandsWashington D.C. : Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1866. Digital Images

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying you sources helps others find the records you used.

Distrito de Columbia, registros de la oficina de campo de Freedmen's Bureau (Registros históricos de FamilySearch)