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| Freedmen's Bureau record, 1868. Image courtesy of Arkansas State Archives. |
One of
the most commonly overlooked records in family research, especially for African
American genealogy, is the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust records. These documents
contain more than 480,000 names, making them the largest single collection of
lineage information for African Americans.
Commonly referred to as the
Freedmen’s Savings Bank, it was established by the United States government in
1865. Its purpose was to serve Black
veterans and former enslaved individuals and their families, by ensuring they
had a secure place to build their savings. Later, social groups, churches,
charities and other private organizations opened accounts with the bank,
establishing bonds of trust between the African American community and the
institution. Its headquarters was first
established in New York and later was moved to Washington, D.C. Eventually, 37 branch
offices opened across 17 states, serving 70,000 clients who over the
institution’s lifetime deposited $57 million.
The Freedmen’s Savings Bank only lasted until 1874. Bad investments, rapid
expansion of branches and construction of a handsome new headquarters building
in Washington, D.C., put an enormous strain on the bank, but the financial Panic
of 1873 proved to be the final nail in the coffin. The panic, an outcome of
successive economic expansion and contractions, caused a financial crisis in
North America and Europe that lasted from 1872 to 1877. The Freedmen’s Bank,
which had overextended itself by making real estate loans, collapsed and closed
its doors in June 1874. Since the United States government controlled the
Freedman’s Savings Bank, Congress established a program to reimburse
depositors, up to 62 percent of their savings. Many never received the
compensation, because the government simply could not provide it: The economy had
failed.
Records from 29 of the bank’s 37
branches survive. These records contain papers that each patron was required complete
when opening an account. The information requested, as well as the degree of
the forms’ completion, varies between branches and year. The information might include
the depositor’s name, date of deposit, current employer, the name of the plantation
the depositor lived on before emancipation, age, height, complexion, parents’ names
, military unit (if the depositor served in the Civil War), marital status, place
of birth, current residence and occupation, as well as the names of children or
siblings.
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| Guardian Bond for Thomas Bassett, 1835. Image courtesy of SARA. |
This information can help guide pre-Civil War record searches for African Americans in local deed records, slave schedules probate and will records. The Freedmen’s Bank records have in many cases been the only documents in which the names of individuals’ parents or siblings have been recorded in connection to that individual; this information can assist in confirming or expanding upon data collected from other record sets. These may include Federal military pension records, fertile sources for information on individuals who served in Federal units during the Civil War. The files contain personal accounts of service, affidavits from individuals who may have served with the pension applicant, family history information and medical details. These pension files, some of which are over 100 pages long, are located at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The microfilm version of the pension records index is 544 rolls long, which gives an idea of the volume of records available.
You can access the Freedmen’s Savings Bank records, however, by visiting the Arkansas State Archives. Records for the Little Rock (MG02259) and Memphis (MG02260) branches are available on microfilm in our research room. You can look at the entire collection on of Freedmen’s Bureau material at Ancestry.com, available for use in our research room. Familysearch.org also offers a limited number of images.
