Records of the Freedmen’s Bureau: There’s Something for Everyone

In March of 1865, the United States Congress established a new division of the War Department, The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands – commonly known as “The Freedmen’s Bureau.” The function of the Bureau was to supervise and manage all business pertaining to refugees, freedmen, and lands that had been abandoned or seized during the tumultuous Civil War. To accomplish this, personnel and offices were set up in all of the former Confederate and border states, as well as in the District of Columbia. Though the nickname “Freedmen’s Bureau” suggests a complete focus on the formerly enslaved, this presentation highlights information about ancestors of all backgrounds – black and white.