The Names of 1.8 Million Emancipated Slaves Are Now Searchable in the World’s Largest Genealogical Database, Helping African Americans Find Lost Ancestors

in Archives, History, Museums | January 3rd, 2020 42 Comments

The suc­cess­es of the Freedman’s Bureau, ini­ti­at­ed by Abra­ham Lin­coln in 1865 and first admin­is­tered under Oliv­er Howard’s War Depart­ment, are all the more remark­able con­sid­er­ing the intense pop­u­lar and polit­i­cal oppo­si­tion to the agency. Under Lincoln’s suc­ces­sor, impeached South­ern Demo­c­rat Andrew John­son, the Bureau at times became a hos­tile enti­ty to the very peo­ple it was meant to aid and protect—the for­mer­ly enslaved, espe­cial­ly, but also poor whites dev­as­tat­ed by the war. After years of defund­ing, under­staffing, and vio­lent insur­gency the Freedman’s Bureau was offi­cial­ly dis­solved in 1872.

In those first few years after eman­ci­pa­tion, how­ev­er, the Bureau built sev­er­al hos­pi­tals and over a thou­sand rur­al schools in the South, estab­lished the His­tor­i­cal­ly Black Col­lege and Uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem, and “cre­at­ed mil­lions of records,” notes the Nation­al Muse­um of African Amer­i­can His­to­ry and Cul­ture (NMAAHC), “that con­tain the names of hun­dreds of thou­sands of for­mer­ly enslaved indi­vid­u­als and South­ern white refugees.” Those records have enabled his­to­ri­ans to recon­struct the lives of peo­ple who might oth­er­wise have dis­ap­peared from the record and helped geneal­o­gists trace fam­i­ly con­nec­tions that might have been irrev­o­ca­bly bro­ken.

As we not­ed back in 2015, those records have become part of a dig­i­ti­za­tion project named for the Bureau and spear­head­ed by the Smith­son­ian, the Nation­al Archives, the Afro-Amer­i­can His­tor­i­cal and Genealog­i­cal Soci­ety, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat­ter Day Saints, whose Fam­il­y­Search is the largest geneal­o­gy orga­ni­za­tion in the world. “Using mod­ern, dig­i­tal and web-based tech­nol­o­gy and the pow­er of [over 25,000!] vol­un­teers,” says Hol­lis Gen­try, a genealog­i­cal spe­cial­ist at the NMAAHC, the Freedman’s Bureau Project “is unlock­ing infor­ma­tion from a trans­for­ma­tive era in the his­to­ry of African Amer­i­can fam­i­lies and the Amer­i­can nation.”

That infor­ma­tion is now avail­able to the gen­er­al pub­lic, “glob­al­ly via the web” here, as of June 20th, 2016, allow­ing “all of us to enlarge our under­stand­ing of the past.” More specif­i­cal­ly, the Freedman’s Bureau Project and Fam­il­y­Search allows African Amer­i­cans to recov­er their fam­i­ly his­to­ry in a data­base that now includes “the names of near­ly 1.8 mil­lion men, women and chil­dren” record­ed by Freedman’s Bureau work­ers and entered by Freedman’s Bureau Project vol­un­teers 150 years lat­er. This incred­i­ble data­base will give mil­lions of peo­ple descend­ed from both for­mer slaves and white Civ­il War refugees the abil­i­ty to find their ances­tors.

There’s still more work to be done. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with the NMAAHC, the Smith­son­ian Tran­scrip­tion Cen­ter is cur­rent­ly rely­ing on vol­un­teers to tran­scribe all of the dig­i­tal scans pro­vid­ed by Fam­il­y­Search. “When com­plet­ed, the papers will be key­word search­able. This joint effort will help increase access to the Freedmen’s Bureau col­lec­tion and help the pub­lic learn more about the Unit­ed States in the Recon­struc­tion Era,” a crit­i­cal time in U.S. his­to­ry that is woe­ful­ly under­rep­re­sent­ed or delib­er­ate­ly white­washed in text­books and cur­ric­u­la.

“The records left by the Freed­men’s Bureau through its work between 1865 and 1872 con­sti­tute the rich­est and most exten­sive doc­u­men­tary source avail­able for inves­ti­gat­ing the African Amer­i­can expe­ri­ence in the post-Civ­il War and Recon­struc­tion eras,” writes the Nation­al Archives. Soon, all of those doc­u­ments will be pub­licly avail­able for every­one to read. For now, those with roots in the U.S. South can search the Freedman’s Bureau Project data­base to dis­cov­er more about their fam­i­ly her­itage and his­to­ry.

And while the Smithsonian’s tran­scrip­tion project is under­way, those who want to learn more can vis­it the Freedman’s Bureau Online, which has tran­scribed hun­dreds of doc­u­ments, includ­ing labor records, nar­ra­tives of “out­rages com­mit­ted on freed­men,” and mar­riage reg­is­ters.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

1.5 Mil­lion Slav­ery Era Doc­u­ments Will Be Dig­i­tized, Help­ing African Amer­i­cans to Learn About Their Lost Ances­tors

Visu­al­iz­ing Slav­ery: The Map Abra­ham Lin­coln Spent Hours Study­ing Dur­ing the Civ­il War

The Civ­il War and Recon­struc­tion: A Free Course

Josh Jones is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at @jdmagness


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Comments (42)
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  • K Berry says:
    January 3, 2020 at 12:05 pm

    This arti­cle should be cor­rect­ed and updat­ed to say that the Freed­men’s Bureau was dis­solved in 1872, not 1972.

    Reply
  • Sonya says:
    January 4, 2020 at 12:52 am

    I cre­at­ed a log in and the link will not work. 😢

    Reply
  • Orisheju Ukuedojor says:
    January 4, 2020 at 1:53 am

    This is an out­stand­ing project, that will open so many doors to learn­ing and recon­nect­ing with his­to­ry.

    Reply
  • Raqeeb Ahmed says:
    January 4, 2020 at 3:25 am

    Thanks for shar­ing, it’s true.

    Reply
  • Beatrice Boyd says:
    January 4, 2020 at 3:59 am

    Thanks for shar­ing this infor­ma­tion. I believe it will def­i­nite­ly help in locat­ing ances­tors from that era.

    Reply
  • Ramona Hewitt-Williams says:
    January 4, 2020 at 6:31 am

    #Powe­ful #Real­Facts #RealTalk
    I’m Inter­est­ed in my find­ing my #Ances­tors.

    My bio­log­i­cal #Father is
    Cau­casian-Greek-Irish Amer­i­cab and my moth­er African French-Jew­ish Amer­i­can.

    Every Amer­i­can needs to know the #Truth about our #Ances­tors
    This is a great help in find­ing our true iden­ti­ty and fam­i­ly his­to­ry for our #Amer­i­can Lega­cy. #God­sAmaz­ing­Grace.
    Thank You! Hap­py New
    Ra’­mona Hewitt-Williams

    Reply
  • Rey says:
    January 4, 2020 at 8:03 am

    Fan­tas­tic!

    Reply
  • Shannon C Teid says:
    January 4, 2020 at 8:10 am

    To Whom It May Con­cern,
    How can peo­ple who are inter­est­ed in help­ing to dig­i­tize records vol­un­teer in their area. I would LOVE to help with this project.

    Eager To Help,

    Shan­non C Reid

    Reply
  • Annette Mcilwain says:
    January 4, 2020 at 9:36 am

    Search for Truedale and Mcil­wain fam­i­ly his­to­ry. Moth­er and Father! Colum­bus mcil­wain and Truedale fam­i­ly.

    Reply
  • Laura D says:
    January 4, 2020 at 10:48 am

    I’m hop­ing this will help me fur­ther my search for my ances­tors. I was able to trace my father’s name back to a slave own­er in Wash­ing­ton, NC with the same last name. How­ev­er, then it only shows the ages of the slaves and not their names. So, that of course made me come to a dead end. So, hop­ing this research engine will help me. I’m very excit­ed about it.

    Reply
  • ALONZO K GOLDEN-ALSTON says:
    January 4, 2020 at 11:28 am

    Iam inter­est­ed in ELBERT AND PRINCESS GOLDEN a Slave from the
    CONGO to THE GAULDEN PLANTATION in
    McIn­tosh County,Georgia.Later moved
    to Lib­er­ty County,Georgia.Purchased
    200 acres of land and estab­lished
    WILLIE,GA With a School and a
    Post Office.ELBERT GOLDEN sold the
    land for the expan­sion of FORT
    STEWART MILITARY BASE, HINESVILLE,
    Geor­gia.

    Reply
  • ALONZO K GOLDEN-ALSTON says:
    January 4, 2020 at 11:39 am

    Iam inter­est­ed in ELBERT AND PRINCESS GOLDEN a Slave from the
    CONGO to THE GAULDEN PLANTATION in
    McIn­tosh County,Georgia.Later moved
    to Lib­er­ty County,Georgia.Purchased
    200 acres of land and estab­lished
    WILLIE,GA With a School and a
    Post Office.ELBERT GOLDEN sold the
    land for the expan­sion of FORT
    STEWART MILITARY BASE, HINESVILLE,
    Geor­gia.

    The Alston Fam­i­ly of South Car­oli­na

    Reply
  • Brandon childs says:
    January 4, 2020 at 12:42 pm

    Look­ing for info. On my Mater­nal Great Grand­par­ents Names where Ran­dle Cole­man Born 1855 In Lau­ren Coun­ty SC, died between 1911 and 1920 in Greenville Sc he’s on the 1910 cen­sus but not the 1920 his wife Mis­souri was list­ed on the 1920 cen­sus as a wid­ow . I can’t find any infor­ma­tion on Mis­souri before she mar­ried

    Reply
  • Lawrence Diggs says:
    January 4, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    Pleased to know that this infor­ma­tion is forth­com­ing or avail­able. I’ve been try­ing to locate infor­ma­tion on my mater­nal grand­par­ents last list­ed in the Mis­souri cen­sus in 1910; they dis­ap­pear in the Mis­souri 1920 cen­sus. What’s with that?

    My mater­nal grand­moth­er was born in 1900 in St. Louis, Mo.; She was a mulat­to but her mother’s infor­ma­tion is not avail­able. Her father, as we were informed, was sup­posed to be her father. But the 1910 cen­sus lists him as her broth­er. Need answers. Still search­ing. Won’t stop!!

    Reply
  • Delois Sheppared says:
    January 5, 2020 at 2:53 am

    Hi I have searched the Shep­pard, Smith,Boles,and Steady­way fam­i­ly names.I lean that my African heirs are from the Con­go areas. I would like to know more about the tribe and ances­tors.

    Reply
  • Alexis June says:
    January 5, 2020 at 6:27 am

    This title is prob­lem­at­ic. “The names of ________ PEOPLE who were enslaved,” would be a bet­ter, less racist way to dis­cuss actu­al peo­ple, who suf­fered the great­est atroc­i­ties know to humankind. Those peo­ple, being the direct descen­dants of the first actu­al HUMAN beings. They were not just ‘slaves.’

    Whether lib­er­al or con­ser­v­a­tive, your views of black peo­ple remain a con­stant prob­lem with the pro­gres­sion of soci­ety. You see us as objects, and not the divine beings we are. Your igno­rance is abun­dant­ly root­ed in colo­nial con­di­tion­ing, and regard­less of the lev­el of edu­ca­tion attained, none of it has taught you to think so freely, that you could assign human­i­ty to the very PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY BUILT THIS piss poor coun­try- a coun­try that con­tin­ues to objec­ti­fy them as only ‘slaves,’ while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly dimin­ish­ing their works and accom­plish­ments. This entire coun­try owes EVERYTHING in its exis­tence to those very “slaves.”

    Next time, do bet­ter.

    Reply
  • Daphne McGhee says:
    January 5, 2020 at 7:09 am

    This infor­ma­tion is so pow­er­ful and will open more doors to our his­to­ry. And yes, there are many peo­ple like myself who new ear­li­er records of our ances­tor do exist.

    Reply
  • Lahaja says:
    January 5, 2020 at 7:50 am

    Cor­rec­tion to the title is need­ed. It should read: “The Names of 1.8 Mil­lion of Enslaved Africans That Were Eman­ci­pat­ed Are Now Search­able…”

    Reply
  • Andre Kearns says:
    January 5, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    At this point, most who were enslaved were African-descend­ed Amer­i­cans, not African.

    Here’s my pro­posed friend­ly amend­ment, “The Names of 1.8 Mil­lion Eman­ci­pat­ed from Slav­ery Are Now Search­able…”

    Reply
  • Joan Holbert Hubert says:
    January 5, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    I hope to find infor­ma­tion about Lewis Hol­bert, born in 1806 in North Car­oli­na. He is my 2nd Great Grand­fa­ther. I have also been search­ing for the Frater name in North Car­oli­na. I know that there are many Fraters who lived there. I learned that they came from Mada­gas­car. I hope to try to put my “tree” togeth­er before I am too old to write.
    Anoth­er name on my unfin­ished “tree” is the Felder name. Primus Felder, born in 1805, came to Texas around 1850ish, from South Car­oli­na. His son was Mil­ton Felder. I have con­nect­ed with a Felder Descen­dant who is the Geneal­o­gist for the Felder name and he told me about Hans Hein­rich Felder and oth­ers. Still look­ing to try to make some inroads into my Ances­tors.

    Reply
  • Anthony G. Baxter says:
    January 6, 2020 at 1:41 am

    Seek­ing infor­ma­tion on my pater­nal great grand­fa­ther, Isaac Bax­ter, Sr. and his wife, Emma (nee Boyd). Isaac had two broth­ers William, Sr. who mar­ried Mary Jane (nee Haynes), and John H., Sr. Who mar­ried Abi­gail (nee Gov­an). The broth­ers lived in and around Orange­burg, SC. William fought in the Civ­il War in the SC US Col­ored Troops. We have copi­ous infor­ma­tion about their adult lives, but we have been unable to to find the record of who were their par­ents. We know from WE know from fam­i­ly sto­ries that the broth­ers had been slaves to some­one named Bax­ter or on a plan­ta­tion owned by some­one named Bax­ter.

    Can this project help my fam­i­ly break­through the shroud of slav­ery to dis­cov­er our enslaved fore­bears?

    Reply
  • Anthony G. Baxter says:
    January 6, 2020 at 1:44 am

    Seek­ing infor­ma­tion on my pater­nal great grand­fa­ther, Isaac Bax­ter, Sr. and his wife, Emma (nee Boyd). Isaac had two broth­ers William, Sr. who mar­ried Mary Jane (nee Haynes), and John H., Sr. Who mar­ried Abi­gail (nee Gov­an). The broth­ers lived in and around Orange­burg, SC. William fought in the Civ­il War in the SC US Col­ored Troops. We have copi­ous infor­ma­tion about their adult lives, but we have been unable to to find the record of who were their par­ents. We know from WE know from fam­i­ly sto­ries that the broth­ers had been slaves to some­one named Bax­ter or on a plan­ta­tion owned by some­one named Bax­ter.

    I hope this project can help my fam­i­ly break­through the shroud of slav­ery to dis­cov­er our enslaved fore­bears?

    Reply
  • Zenaide PAssos says:
    January 6, 2020 at 4:30 am

    Toda essa infor­mação inclui escravos brasileiros? Ou só os amer­i­canos

    Reply
  • JD says:
    January 6, 2020 at 10:03 am

    You can join the index­ing project by going to Fam­il­y­search dot org. If you do not have an account with them, you’ll have to cre­ate one. Click on the Index­ing tab and go to Web Index­ing. Scroll down to the tab Find Groups. Click on it, and do a search for Restore the Ances­tors 2019. You’ll ask to join the group, and the admins will have to approve. Cur­rent­ly, the projects that Restore the Ances­tors 2019 are inter­me­di­ate, and if you haven’t indexed before click on Find a Project to get expe­ri­ence index­ing a begin­ning project.

    Reply
  • LN says:
    January 6, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    I am famil­iar with some of the fam­i­lies of South­east GA. My mater­nal fam­i­ly is from Rice­boro. Unfor­tu­nate­ly our fam­i­ly name (Jack­son and Gor­don) do not pro­duce any records in the slave records in Lib­er­ty Coun­ty- lead­ing me to believe we either had a dif­fer­ent name or came to the area in some oth­er way.

    Reply
  • Kim Baker says:
    January 6, 2020 at 10:07 pm

    Look­ing for info about mater­nal great grand­fa­ther, Isaac Wells, born Octo­ber 11, 1840 in Wash­ing­ton, D.C..
    Served in Civl War in Ohio Col­ored 5th

    Reply
  • Norman diggs jr says:
    January 7, 2020 at 4:22 am

    Hi had Dig­gs in st Louis at time peri­od my great grand­fa­ther John Dig­gs born in Mis­sis­sip­pi and grand­fa­ther Mitchell bene­dict Dig­gs. My father was also born there .

    Reply
  • JANA ROUSE says:
    January 8, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    I can’t get the search link to work either

    Reply
  • REGINA SERLES says:
    January 8, 2020 at 7:21 pm

    As we know the sources are incom­plete due to the fact these same sources have been lying all the time. Chris­tians! The Spainish kept excel­lent records in what was known as Port Judah, Louisiana. Under­ground archives were in vaults under­ground in Louisiana. The Mor­mons also kept excel­lent maybe Supe­ri­or records. Most of this infor­ma­tion can be ver­i­fied in Library vaults well before the sources men­tioned here. Any­thing to have us scram­bling like pigeons for bits and parts. There are many sources but I dare not men­tion more oth­er­wise those records would be scattered/ burned like that island. This sys­tem would nev­er be hon­est. How­ev­er, bits and pieces is bet­ter than noth­ing. Thank you.

    Reply
  • REGINA SERLES says:
    January 8, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    Cor­rec­tion. Port Juda…(this vehi­cle keeps cor­rect­ing JUDA) Louisiana. Also anoth­er source are the old (Rice) plan­ta­tion maps. They list­ed the slave Own­ers names and who they pur­chased the slaves from and what ship the slaves were on as well as their names before the slave name’s were changed along with their skills.
    Believe me the only rea­son ‘they’ held onto this info so that ‘they’ could boast.

    Reply
  • Jerimy West says:
    January 16, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    Final­ly a true start­ing point for all of us to be able to begin our fam­i­ly tree and sto­ry I will make sure that my fam­i­ly and I find our begin­ning so we can give our grand­kids their his­to­ry

    Reply
  • Eric Robinson says:
    January 18, 2020 at 6:52 am

    How do I vol­un­teer to help. I am retired and have plen­ty of free time.

    Reply
  • Pamela Fields Kirby says:
    January 18, 2020 at 1:52 pm

    I’m inter­est­ed in find­ing more about Alfred Fields and Anar­chy (Tyson) Fields from Greene Coun­ty North Car­oli­na… I am also try­ing to find out if Alfred had any siblings.…He was born 1842 or 1843 I think.… Also I’m try­ing to find out if Adam Fields mar­ried to Chaney Fields from Greene County,North Car­oli­na are relat­ed…

    Reply
  • Horace Moning says:
    February 3, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    Hi sirs,I just want to thank you for this deep work you have done for us,warm regards.

    Reply
  • Pat Dolan says:
    August 12, 2020 at 8:24 am

    Lau­ra, look for the slave own­ers last will. Slaves will be list­ed by their first names and to whom they’ve been “giv­en.”

    Pat

    Reply
  • Diane says:
    February 13, 2022 at 11:42 pm

    Look­ing for death cer­tifi­cate on Richard Stew­art from Alexan­dria, Louisiana. Social secu­ri­ty index list him as Richie Stew­art. This is the right on because it lists my dad Gen­tle Stew­art as a child. I can­not pin point a birth date because he was mar­ried to Louisa (Luiza) and Jeanette McCoy Stew­art. I don’t know maid­en name of Louisa (Luiza). Any help will be great!

    Reply
  • Diane says:
    February 13, 2022 at 11:43 pm

    Look­ing for death cer­tifi­cate on Richard Stew­art from Alexan­dria, Louisiana. Social secu­ri­ty index list him as Richie Stew­art. This is the right one because it lists my dad Gen­tle Stew­art as a child. I can­not pin point a birth date because he was mar­ried to Louisa (Luiza) and Jeanette McCoy Stew­art. Any help will be great!

    Reply
  • Wanda Burrell Washington says:
    February 24, 2022 at 7:40 am

    I’ve been able to trace my ances­tors back to the 1870 cen­sus, but hit a brick wall after­wards. Have no clue how they end­ed up in Winns­boro SC. I did how­ev­er find their slave own­ers name, and found their names in their pro­bate wills etc. I also found my great great great grand­fa­ther obit­u­ary, if you can call it that. In the news­pa­per writ­ten in 1885. You may want to join the Newspapers.com and look in the area your ances­tors lived. I’m still try­ing to fig­ure how mine got in this coun­try.

    Reply
  • Cherri Woodard says:
    June 15, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    Search­ing for infor­ma­tion on my great great grand­fa­ther Eng­lish Reed, born a slave,but died free, Rem­brandt SC…had a wife named Aliza Reed.. my great great grandmother…from Bermu­da.

    Reply
  • Christine Lutz says:
    July 16, 2022 at 1:15 pm

    Search­ing for names of slaves and/or black house ser­vants in Colum­bia, MO, ca. 1900. Espe­cial­ly inter­est­ed in one with ini­tials “M.F.” who prob­a­bly worked on Price Avenue. Can any­body help with that?

    Reply
  • Mia says:
    March 18, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    Hel­lo,

    Are you still search­ing for infor­ma­tion on, Primus Felder, born in 1805? if so, I believe came up with a few leads.

    Reply
  • Caroly Harper says:
    August 4, 2023 at 7:42 am

    I have time to help. I would like also to find my fam­i­ly

    Reply

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