Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records

On Display 2/4/2025 – 3/3/2025

The Freedmen’s Bureau helped newly freed people legalize their marriages.

After the Civil War, the federal government established a War Department agency to help Americans transition from slavery to freedom. The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–72) issued rations, operated hospitals and helped establish schools and unite families. It worked to resolve labor disputes and negotiate labor contracts. It also presided over and documented marriages between freed couples. 

Unions between enslaved couples were not legally sanctioned or protected. Couples could be separated by sale to other plantations. After 1865, new state laws recognized marriages of enslaved couples. With the help of Army chaplains and civil clergy, the Freedmen’s Bureau led the drive to legitimize these unions, issuing tens of thousands of marriage certificates. These records are an invaluable source of information for historians, social scientists, and genealogists.

Alfred and Antoinette’s wedding in Napoleonville, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, was among the first to be documented by the Freedmen’s Bureau. This certificate is dated March 6, 1865, just three days after the Bureau was established by an act of Congress.
Marriage Certificate for Alfred Wiggins and Antoinette Marvigne, March 6, 1865. Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

View in the National Archives Catalog
According to this marriage certificate, Isaac and Catherine Kelly lived together as husband and wife for three years but were separated when one of them was sold to a different enslaver. A handwritten note on the preprinted form reads, “These parties have been separated by sale once and have again assumed the marriage relation since the war.”
Certificate of Matrimony for Isaac and Catherine Kelly of Nashville, Tennessee, May 12, 1866. Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

View in the National Archives Catalog
This record documents freedpeople’s marriages in North Carolina for the quarter ending on September 30, 1865.
Register of Marriages, September 30, 1865. Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

View in the National Archives Catalog

Additional Online Resources:

Past Featured Records

The War Beneath the Waves: Mary Sears and the Navy’s Oceanographic Unit
During World War II, navigating the Pacific Ocean's perilous tides and currents posed a constant challenge to the U.S. Navy. To update their maps and intelligence, the Navy established an Oceanographic Unit in 1943. The team of scientists was led by Mary Sears, a marine biologist commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in the women’s division of the Naval Reserve, the WAVES.
Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records
After the Civil War, the federal government established a War Department agency to help Americans transition from slavery to freedom. The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–72) issued rations, operated hospitals and helped establish schools and unite families. It worked to resolve labor disputes and negotiate labor contracts. It also presided over and documented marriages between freed couples.
20th Amendment: A New Inauguration Day
From George Washington’s second term through Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first, inauguration day was generally held on March 4. Without cars or computers, the four months between the election and inauguration served a purpose in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It allowed the President-elect time to settle their affairs and journey to the nation’s capital.
Mr. Santa Claus: Romance of the Postal Service
This holiday featured film is one of a series of silent movies produced by the Post Office Department in 1921. The mini melodrama shows how the postal service helps make a happy Christmas for a boy and his sister when their “Dere Sandy Claws” letter is answered by a young married couple.
Bring Them Home, Uncle Sam
Many Americans sought to honor the returning service members with patriotic greetings at the dock, parades to welcome them home, and memorials to honor their service. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11, 1919, as Armistice Day, creating an annual day to honor those who brought about the end of the “Great War.” Two decades later, America would find itself embroiled in World War II and then in the Korean War, with many more soldiers deserving of honor. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower rededicated Armistice Day as Veterans Day to honor all of America’s veterans for their service and sacrifice.