Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Freedmen's Bureau Interactive Research Guide

The Freedmen’s Bureau, the full name of which is The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, was establish after the end of the US Civil War by the US Government to aid former slaves in transitioning to their new life circumstances. It helped them get clothing, food, jobs, etc. It also extended that service to white Southerners, although the focus was certainly on freed slaves.

The Freedmen’s Bureau records have been available for some time through Heritage Quest, normally subscribed to by public libraries and other institutions (the Largo Library has such a subscription). It is worth looking at especially since you can access it from home by going through the library website.

The website which is the focus here has a different approach. It has interactive maps you can use to see if there are records available near your area of interest. Although the site contains no records, it does provide hot links to where the records are located.

The site offers research guides, example documents, and instructions on how to use the maps. Take some time an explore all this site has to offer.

Mapping The Freedmen's Bureau | An Interactive Research Guide

No comments: