Genealogy is also about History - understanding the events and attitudes of the period. What? When? Where? Who?
What were the events? When did they occur and where? [Is that historically significant?] Who were the players? How did those events affect the lives of the players, the community, the county, the state, the country?

-------------- Memphis, Tennessee ----------------------
The Freedmen's Bureau filed pages and pages of reports and affidavits. Leading papers and magazines also reported on the events, as they understood them at the time. Congress held hearings and published their findings in the Congressional Series.

Reports on the Memphis Riots is a must read, especially for those with ancestors in the area before, during, and after the events of May, 1866.

Begin with the Freedmen's Bureau Records ...