African American Introduction: Difference between revisions

The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Records include birthplace, place brought up, residence, age, complexion, name of employer or occupation, spouse, children, father, mother, brothers and sisters, remarks, and signature. These records are found in Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, 1865—1874 FS Library Film nos. [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/133425?availability=Family%20History%20Library 928,571 through 928,591]. An additional guide for Freedmen’s Bureau field office records is Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Field Offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands: Record Group 105 by Elaine Everly and Willna Pacheli FS Library Book: [https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/702586?availability=Family%20History%20Library 973 F23ea]. Part 1 includes Alabama and Louisiana, Part 2 includes Maryland and South Carolina, and Part 3 includes Tennessee and Virginia. Some of the Freedmen’s Bureau records are available online at:  

Another helpful source of information for locating African American ancestors is the Records of the Commissioners of Claims 1871—1880 {{FSC|Film nos. 1,463,963 through 1,463,987}}. Nearly 22,300 cases are filed by individual names, family groups, churches, and businesses. Records include testimony of neighbors, relatives, and former slaves to support a claimant’s assertions, taken during the Civil War because of loyalty to the Union. A master index to these case files is found in Southern Loyalists in the Civil War: The Southern Claims Commission by Gary B. Mills {{FSC|Book: 975 M2s}}.