Additional Freedmen’s Bureau records now available
This photo represents the type of findings FamilySearch has to offer. This is a historic photo of an African-American Family from Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
This photo depicts a page from the Freedman's Bureau South Carolina Georgetown Hospital Register of the sick and wounded from 1867 to 1872.
SALT LAKE CITY — In recognition of Juneteenth (Emancipation Day), FamilySearch announces the online publication of additional Freedmen’s Bureau records.
The records are popular historic sources for those doing African-American research that extends back to the Civil War period when slavery was abolished in the United States.
Juneteenth is an important historical and joyous African-American holiday celebrated by millions, which commemorates the abolition of slavery.
The celebration begins June 19 and lasts at least that day or a week or an entire month.
The latest Freedmen’s Bureau records added to FamilySearch.org’s historical record collections are for Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
The Juneteenth celebration commemorates the June 19, 1865, arrival of General Gordon Granger and 2,000 troops arriving in Galveston, Texas, enforcing the freeing of the slaves. The celebration of Juneteenth began in the streets of Galveston by the former slaves and is now celebrated throughout the nation every year on the same date by millions of people.
Robin Foster, a national genealogy examiner and a member of the South Carolina Genealogical Society, said: “The Freedman Bureau records are crucial to tracing your African-American genealogy back past 1870. Until now, we had to travel to national, state or local archives to have any hope of finding records. With FamilySearch, many of those records can be seen online on your home computer.”
FamilySearch.org published the South Carolina bureau records in December 2013. FamilySearch published the popular Freedmen’s Bank Records in 2001.
The new online additions are currently viewable as digital images of the original records. As FamilySearch’s online volunteers complete indexing them, the searchable name index will be added to the digital images.
Janis Forté, a lecturer, author, and publisher, and Recording Secretary of Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago, stresses the importance of these latest additions to the Freedmen Bureau records collections now on FamilySearch.org. “This enables all researchers to have access to Freedmen Bureau records at no cost, any time,” she said.
Forté has personally experienced the value of these records.
“In one instance, a Bureau record took me back three generations, even mentioning daughters’ names and their married names,” she said. “I discovered a great-great uncle had two marriages, one I didn’t know about.”
Joan Healy, research consultant with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, said the Freedmen’s Bureau had vast responsibilities and therefore abundant records.
“The goal of the Bureau was to help 4 million slaves make the transition to freedom,” she said. “They provided services including rations, medical care, employment assistance, and support for education. Two hundred hospitals were built and 4,000 schools were established.”
See more at: http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/06/18/644996/10086192/en/New-Freedmen-s-Bureau-Records-Available-for-Juneteenth-Celebration.html#sthash.rGfttOSp.dpuf