Freedmen’s Bureau Project Seeking Volunteers

By Darren Blair

From 1865 to 1872, the Freedmen’s Bureau worked to assist those who had recently been freed from slavery. It opened schools, managed hospitals, rationed out clothing and food, and even solemnized marriages. “Some four million slaves were set free and they would not have had any place to stay, any place to sleep, or any food to eat had it not been for the concept of the Freedmen’s Bureau,” explained Rev. Cecil L. Murray, John R. Tansey Chair of Christian Ethics Senior Fellow, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC.

In the process, the Bureau kept and maintained hand-written records on each of these individuals who it helped adjust to a life of freedom.

In 2001, genealogy organization Family Search indexed the 460,000 historical records it acquired from the Freedman’s Bank. Another 800,000 records from the Freedman’s Bureau in Virginia would follow in 2009. But nearly one and a half million records still remain to be indexed.

In order to index these records, Family Search has teamed up with the Smithsonian Institute, the California African American Museum, and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society to launch the Freedman’s Bureau Project. The ultimate goal of the project, as noted in a “fast facts” page on the website, is to create an online searchable database. Once the database is completed, the names will be available for online access and the records themselves will be showcased at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is currently under construction.

In order to help index the large number of records available, the Project is seeking volunteers to help with the process of indexing the names. The volunteer effort is open to all who wish to participate, and the project requires nothing more than a computer and regular internet access. Volunteers will be prompted to download the free Family Search Indexing software, at which point they will be asked to create a new account.

At present, only nine percent of the documents available to the project have been indexed. The stated goal for the project is to have everything done within one year’s time, meaning that a considerable number of volunteers will be required to complete this objective.

When explaining the importance of the project, Rev. Murray further explained “When you know your background then your foreground pretty well takes care of itself. When you know where you’re coming from then you can design where you are going.” The “fast facts” page furthers this by noting that “many African Americans will be able to discover their Civil War-era families for the first time.”

For more information, visit the official Freedman Bureau Project website at Discover Freedmen.org.

Family Search.org is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Find Darren Blair’s article in the July 10, 2015, edition of the Copperas Cove Leader Press.