United States, Maryland and Delaware, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872

What is in This Collection?

This collection consists of scanned images of records from National Archives microfilm publication M1906 Records of the Field Offices for the States of Maryland and Delaware, 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; Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Claim Division, Complaint Division, first then the local field office records are arranged alphabetically by location and by NARA roll number.

Records with Freedmen and Refugee Name

• Assistant Commissioner’s Office, Roll 5, Assistant Commissioner’s Land Reports, Teachers Monthly School Reports
• Assistant Commissioner’s Office, Roll 6, Reports of Persons and Articles Hired
• Assistant Commissioner’s Office, Roll 6, Register of Complaints of Illegal Apprenticeships
• Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 16, Register of Claimants, Registers of Cash Received and Disbursed, 3 volumes, Register of Disbursements
• Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 17, Receipts for Pay, Bounty, and Pension Certificates, A-R
• Chief Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer, Roll 18, Receipts for Certificates, R-Z
• Claim Division, Roll 28, Register of Claimants for Bounties and Pay Arrearages
• Claim Division, Roll 29-32, Case Files for Claims for Bounty and Pay Arrearages, A-Y
• Claim Division, Roll 32, Register of Claimants for Pensions
• Claim Division, Rolls 33-35, Case Files of Pension Claims, A-Y
• Claim Division, Roll 35, Register of Maryland Bounty Claims Filed through Hugh L. Bond, Register of Claims Not Originally Filed through the Baltimore Office, Register of Loyal Slave Owners, Maryland and West Virginia, Names and Addresses of Claimants, 2 volumes
• Complaint Division, Roll 37, Register of Complaints
• Bladensburg, Roll 41, Register of Complaints
• Rockville, Roll 42, Register of Complaints
• Wilmington, Delaware, Roll 42, Register of Claimants for Bounties, Register of Claims for Pensions, Register of Payments

Related National Archives Collections

• Maryland Slave Claims Commission Correspondence, 1864–1865, RG 94, NAID 6267233

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

• Dr. Shelly Viola Murphy, Let Freedom Ring Family Tree Magazine 23 # 3 (May-June 2022): 50-56. FS Library 973 D25ft V23. Issue 3
• 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.

National Museum of African American History & Culture

The museum 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
• Freedmen's Bureau - Browse Projects

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

To Browse This Collection

Collection Content

• 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.

• 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

Inventory

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.

• Inventory