Quickstart to Freedmen's Bureau Records

Recent guest speaker Shamele Jordan laid out a five-step process for finding ancestors in the Freedmen's Bureau Records:

STEP 1: Determine an ancestor and 1870 location

• Find the location on a present-day map. https://www.google.com/maps
• Find the nearest field offices using Mapping the Freedmen’s Bureau https://mappingthefreedmensbureau.com/maps/map/

STEP 2: Learn about the Bureau

• Download and print the descriptive pamphlet (DP)or your State Field Office records using the National Archives Freedmen’s Bureau site
• Read  the intro, and history in the DP. 
• https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau

STEP 3: Learn about the records

• Read the rest of your state descriptive pamphlet 
• https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau

STEP 4: Create a research plan

• Use the roll list in the descriptive pamphlet to list rolls, targets/titles to research. 
• https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau

STEP 5: Research using the tools

• Smithsonian’s Online Virtual Archives
• https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAAHC.FB

Essential to accessing and understanding these records are the Descriptive Pamphlets. Links to each state are: 

STATE FIELD OFFICE Descriptive Pamphlets

 

Alabama 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1900.pdf

 

Arkansas

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1901.pdf

 

District of Columbia

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1902.pdf

 

Florida

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1869.pdf

 

Georgia

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1903.pdf

 

Kentucky

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1904.pdf

 

Louisiana

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1905.pdf

 

Maryland/Delaware

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1906.pdf

 

Mississippi

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1907.pdf

 

Missouri

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1908.pdf

 

North Carolina

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1909.pdf

 

South Carolina

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1910.pdf

 

Tennessee

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1911.pdf

Texas

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1912.pdf

 

Virginia

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1913.pdf

 JO

Surname Distribution Maps

 FamilySearch has a wiki page for surname distribution maps. These maps show where different surnames have appeared. If a customer is grasping at straws for an ancestor's place of origin, these maps may be helpful, particularly for less common names. But mostly these maps are fun to play around on!

Digitized NARA records

Much of the "low hanging" fruit and some of the more advanced sources of the National Archives and Records Administration records have been digitized by digitization partners.  A full list of sources digitized by Ancestry, Fold3, FamilySearch and other partners is available. 

This list might help if you are working with a customer whos ancestor or family member came in contact with the Federal Government in some way.  These digital records include NARA microfilm publications and original records.  The list is updated periodically and can be downloaded to sort.

You will find title of the publication, links to images (some sites are subscription sites), original record group and a few other identifiers as columns on the list.  

https://www.archives.gov/digitization/digitized-by-partners

SK

Houston Police Department Records

 If a customer is interested in obtaining Houston Police Department records, try using this website for guidance: https://www.houstontx.gov/police/public_information.htm

It gives very specific information on what information can be released and how to obtain it. There is a lengthy list of record types, such as accident report, mug shots, citations, etc, and you can click on each type to find out who is the record holder, their contact info, and the criteria for record release.  The most common request type would probably be for Report - Police / Incident / Offense. A great deal seems to depend upon if the case was closed by conviction. 

JO

 

                BG

Northern Virginia Slavery Database

 This database searches enslaved ancestors using the birth, death, and probate records of Fairfax and Loudon Counties, Virginia from 1853 to 1859. These records exist because the Virginia General Assembly passed a law requiring the systemic statewide recording of births and deaths.

Try it here: http://novahistory.org/Slavery_Database/Slavery_Database.htm

JO

Our Black Ancestry

 
 
Our Black Ancestry is a non-profit organization devoted to collecting and sharing resources relating to African American genealogy. They also assist researchers in learning about their family history. The main hub of Our Black Ancestry is their Facebook group that boasts thousands of members. There are posts daily from people asking for help in their personal research and others relating to resources relevant to people researching the history of their African American ancestry. The website for Our Black Ancestry is https://ourblackancestry.com/index.php  and you can find and join their online group on Facebook by simply searching the name “Our Black Ancestry”. 


RS

Civil War Photo Sleuth

 With the aid of modern facial recognition, the mission of the Civil War Photo Sleuths to identity the names of every unidentified photograph of Civil War servicemen. Users of the site can upload photographs of unknown soldiers onto the website. The facial recognition software with scan the photographs and search their website['s online photograph archive for any possible matches to the soldier regardless of such differences as facial hair for example. 

You can read about Photo Sleuth here https://militaryimages.atavist.com/photo-sleuth-summer-2017

Their official website can be accessed at https://www.civilwarphotosleuth.com/

RS

Circus Historical Society

 Do you have stories of ancestors being in the circus? Were they trapeze artists flying high above a crowd doing death-defying stunts? Did they blow fire out their mouths or train elephants? If so,  the Circus Historical Society may be the place to go for genealogists looking to learn more about their circus performer ancestors.

The Circus Historical Society was established in 1939 for the purpose of sharing and preserving the history of the Circus. Genealogically relevant databases on the CHS website include circus performer biographies, census abstracts of people in different companies and city directories  or performers.
The CHS website can be accessed at https://classic.circushistory.org/about.htm .

RS

HistoryMakers

HistoryMakers is the largest digital African American oral history collection in the United States containing  over 148,163 stories collected from 2,691 African Americans of historical significance. There are a wide variety of topics and subjects that range from the importance of work ethic to being an activist discussed by everyone being interviewed. As always in oral history, questions revolve around people's origins and backgrounds as a way to understand who they are and how they became to be. Out of all the 2,691 interviewees, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an interview of my cousin Dr. Merline Pitre, a long-time History professor at Texas Southern History. She spoke of growing up in the small Louisiana community of Plaisance where my paternal grandfather was from and mentioned her grandmother who happened to be my great-grandfather's older sister. Because cousin Merline is a historian, she talked about the early schools and churches within the community and their histories and how my family contributed to it's founding. For me, her oral testimony added some cultural and colorful layers to my own family history and Louisiana Creole heritage.

If you're a genealogist exploring African American family history, one of your relatives may be one of the subjects being interviewed in HistoryMakers. HistoryMakers can be accessed free in the library and at home remotely if you have a Houston Public Library card.

RS

National Park Service Virtual tours

Did you know that you can take a virtual tour of National Parks on YouTube. Check out the National Park Service YouTube channel.  

Under the National Park Service website is a section called " Story Maps". Visit the locations through articles, pictures and videos. 

I clicked out the Story Map places of women suffrage. https//:nps.gov/articles/storymap-places-of-women-s-suffrage.htm

MH