the Freedmen's Bureau records are an invaluable resource for the descendants of
formerly enslaved people in the United States they provide information that isn't found
anywhere else and can bring people long-lost to history back into the light join me today
on the ancestral findings podcast as we talk about where to find them and how to use them
if you have african-american ancestry you should know about and make use of the Freedmen's Bureau
records in your genealogy research this is a helpful tool like no other and it can allow
you to bring your family tree back many more generations in North America than you may have
thought possible it is a totally unique resource nothing like it exists anywhere
else in the pre twentieth-century records of the federal government if you have not used
these records before or have heard of them but don't know how to access them or what they can
do for you read on because this is information you need to enhance your family tree after the
Civil War ended there were millions of formerly enslaved people who found themselves free but
without any direction or idea of what to do or where to go next the Bureau of refugees freedmen
and abandoned lands which was also called the Freedmen's Bureau was established to assist
these former slaves in establishing themselves in the southern states and in Washington DC it
also helped some impoverished Caucasians in the south as well the bureau assisted people
from 1865 to 1870 to the Freedmen's Bureau did many things for the former slaves it was kind
of an all-purpose Bureau of the federal government dedicated to helping a particular group of people
some of the things the Bureau did included the following providing food and clothing assisting
in locating family members such as ones who had been sold during slavery legalizing marriages as
slaves were not allowed to legally marry though many had their own ceremonies to commit to each
other looking for an even providing employment providing lawyers operating hospitals operating
temporary housing camps they investigated racially based confrontations secured back pay for African
American soldiers and sailors and their heirs secured bounty payments and pensions for military
service education settled freed former slaves on abandoned or confiscated lands the records of the
Freedmen's Bureau are available on microfilm and the public can view them in person at the
National Archives in Washington DC some of the records have been digitized and indexed and are
available on genealogical websites the records that are available such as marriage records
medical records and local census records all give the descendants of freed slaves the full names of
their ancestors and even the names of the former owners of those ancestors this provides invaluable
information when researching formerly enslaved ancestors knowing their names and the names
of their former owners gives descendents new and targeted places to search for their family history
some of the information in these records can be quite detailed as well providing descendants of
former slaves with personal information about the lives of their ancestors and even their
personalities most family historians want to know what their ancestors were like as people and these
records can provide that information in a way few other record sources can do in records from
the bureau such as records of military service school records food rations and marriages intimate
details of the lives of ancestors emerge the type of details and how much information is included
varies greatly from record to record and place to place while a marriage record may include
information on previous relationships the number of children already born to each partner and the
race of each partner others may only include names or names ages and birth places still as
anyone with african-american ancestry knows any information is better than none and even
the tiniest bit can give a clue as to where to search next to put the next branch on the family
tree online records that have been digitized and indexed can be found on familysearch.org
and on discover Friedman org currently there are 1.8 million names indexed thanks to a year-long
Freedmen's Bureau project by family search begun in 2015 the project was done in conjunction with
the National Archives the Smithsonian and the afro-american historical and Genealogical Society
the Freedmen's Bureau transcription project is now working on the digitized records done by
Family Search with the goal of indexing online every word on every digitized document in the
collection like the initial digitizing project the transcription project is being done by volunteers
who consider family history to be important eventually the goal is to have all of the
Freedmen's Bureau records at the National Archives digitized transcribed indexed and placed online
for anyone with african-american ancestry to view and use in their genealogical research one of the
interesting things about the Freedmen's Bureau records is that it includes the names of not
just men which was typical for other resources of the mid to late 19th century it also includes the
names of women and children because freed slaves were such a poorly documented group the inclusion
of the names of everyone the bureau assisted is invaluable information those names may lead
a genealogist to other names in the family tree and the records on which the names were included
may also have the names of relatives of those people which provides another avenue of research
the Freedmen's Bureau records not only provide a crucial source of information to descendents of
formally insight people it also gives the general public an excellent first-hand account of the
United States during the period of reconstruction after the Civil War it is generally not a
well-documented period so this collection provides both historical and genealogical information not
available anywhere else because these records are available for free whether you go to the National
Archives to view them in person or search through them online on Family Search or another website
the Freedmen's Bureau records are easy to use the idea was to make them accessible by everyone and
they are if you have not yet used these records in your genealogical research you may be pleasantly
surprised by how much they can add to the story of your family try them and see for yourself
if you have Irish heritage there is probably at least one Irish surname in your family as
Irish families can be challenging to trace join me in the next episode about Irish
surnames and their origins and meanings this will help you learn the beginnings
of your Irish family tree branch thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time on
the ancestral findings podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings com