Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. Arkansas Field Office Records. Call#: Microfilm 1171. Although not keyed specifically to this microfilm set, the researcher should consult volume one of the Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Field Offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Call # E185.2 .U56 - 2nd floor open shelf) for an inventory of the records reproduced on this microfilm. The Newberry's computer catalog lists the field office towns represented on each reel. Genealogical highlights of these records include: Marriages for the period of approximately 1865-1868 in field office records for Arkadelphia (reel 1), Jacksonport (reel 7), Little Rock (reels 11-13), Osceola (reel 16), Paraclifta (reel 16), Pine Bluff (reels 16-17), Washington (reels 20-21). Also labor contracts in field office records for Arkadelphia (reel 1), Augusta (reel 1), Camden (reel 2), Devil's Bluff (reel 3), Fort Smith (reels 3-5), Hamburg (reels 5-6), Jacksonport (reel ), Lake Village and Luna Landing (reels 7-8), Madison (reels 13-14), Monticello (reel 15), Napoleon (reel 15), Osceola (reel 16), Paraclifta (reel 16), Princeton (reel 20), Washington (reel 21). These listings are provided to alert the researcher to several of the records with the greatest genealogical potential; however, these suggestions should not be relied upon exclusively. The serious researcher is urged to consult the "Preliminary Inventory" in conjunction with the Newberry's computer catalog entry for the field office records.
Records of the [Arkansas] Claims Division, Disbursing Officers & Claims Agents. Call# Microfilm 1170. Largely concerning the claims of the United States Colored Troops soldiers for bounty and backpay. The most informative are the claims of widows or other family members relating to deceased veterans, although these are very much in the minority. Organization is chronological for letters and papers sent and received. There is periodic indexing by ledger, but even so a scan of these records (on six reels) will take some time.
Records of the Assistant Commissioner for Arkansas. Call# Microfilm 715. Of special interest: Reels 35-44 contain labor contracts arranged by year and thereunder roughly by employer surname.
Records of the Assistant Commissioner for Tennessee. Call # Microfilm 720. Reel 25 contains labor contracts for Arkansas County, Arkansas.
Freedmen's Bureau Online: Arkansas (website). This site contains a number of indexes and transcriptions of documents from the Freedmen's Bureau records.
Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Deposit Ledger Indexes. Call # Microfilm 710. Reel 1 contains indexing for little Rock.
Freedman’s Savings and Trust Signature Books. Call # Microfilm 709. Reel 3 contains entries for Little Rock. These records are indexed by Freedman's Bank Records. Call # CD-ROM E185.6 F844 2000. (Ask at Genealogy Desk for this item.)
Patterson, Ruth Polk. The Seed of Sally Good’n: A Black Family of Arkansas 1833-1953. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1985. Call # E185.96P366 1985. A history of the Polks of Montgomery, Howard and Pike Counties.
Stampp, Kenneth. Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations. Call # Microfilm 708. See entry for this title on page six. Recrds for the Sheppard family of Jefferson County found on reel F.1.22.
Strong-Eldridge, Thelma. Columbia County, Arkansas Connections: Abstracts of Funeral Programs, 1969-1982. Chicago: T.S. Eldridge, 1996. Call# Folio F417.C6 S78 1996.
Walton-Raji, Angela. Freedmen of the Frontier: African American Historical and Genealogical Resource Page of the City of of Ft. Smith Arkansas (website). Includes index of marriages in Fort Smith extracted from Freedman's Bureau records.
Witherspoon, Dorothy Wofford. The Homecoming: A Celebration of the Wofford, Lottie, and Brinker Families. Baltimore: Gateway Press 1990. Call # CS71.W844 1990.