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

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 ...
20th Amendment: A New Inauguration Day
On Display 1/10/2025 – 2/3/2025 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 ...
Mr. Santa Claus: Romance of the Postal Service
On Display 12/5/2024 – 1/8/2025 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. https://catalog.archives....
Bring Them Home, Uncle Sam
Soldiers arrive home aboard the S.S. Haverford as the transport ship pulls into Philadelphia, 1918. Records of War Department General and Special Staffs On Display 10/31/2024 – 12/4/2024 More than two million American service members were overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces when the guns fell silent on November 11, 1918, ending World War I. Americans would continue to ...
Betty Ford: Raising Breast Cancer Awareness
On Display 10/03/2024 - 10/30/2024 Just weeks after she became First Lady, Betty Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer. On September 26, 1974, doctors discovered a lump in her breast during a routine medical examination. She underwent a mastectomy two days later. Breaking with social conventions of the time, Betty Ford shared her cancer diagnosis with the public. This ...