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Freedmen’s Bureau Records

Freemens Bureau application

Diane L. Richard, MEng, MBA

Are you seeking records for your southern ancestors in the immediate post Civil War time period (1865-1868)? Learn about this little known and used Federal record collection that is full of invaluable records for many ancestors, regardless of skin color or circumstances, who lived in North Carolina (or elsewhere from DE to TX). After the war many needed assistance, from maimed soldiers, to widows with children, to the aged and feeble, to ex-slaves and their former owners. Examples of records relating to rations, contracts and indentures, courts, abandoned land, schools, hospitals, and more are presented.

(Image source: “Certificate of Applicant, Elizabeth Gardiner, 1867”, scanned photocopy from microfilm, National Archives, Public Domain)

Available in the NCGS online bookstore is North Carolina Research – Genealogy and Local History, the text for the NCGS Webinar Series.


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