Endorsements Sent
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Louisiana, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M1027, Series 2
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Endorsements sent are a characteristic of 19th–century recordkeeping practices. A reply to an incoming letter was frequently written on the letter itself or on a specially prepared wrapper. The reply (known as an endorsement) was then copied into an endorsement book, and the endorsed letter was returned to the sender or forwarded to another office. Endorsement books usually contain a summary of the incoming letter and sometimes the text of previous endorsements that were written on the letter.

Among the records of the Assistant Commissioner are five volumes of endorsements sent, July 12, 1865–April 30, 1869. Both volumes and entries in each volume are arranged chronologically. Many entries contain cross–references to related entries in the registers of letters received. These cross–references consist of the letters "LR" (letters received) followed by the number of a letter; "LR" usually appears in the margin of endorsement book pages to the left of the pertinent entry. The left margins also include numbers written as fractions. The numerator is the page number in the same volume on which the preceding endorsement to the same addressee appears; the denominator is the page number of the subsequent endorsement.

Each endorsement book has a name index that is arranged alphabetically by initial letter of surname of correspondent. The index for Volume 3, which was prepared by the NARS staff, is arranged alphabetically by entire name of correspondent. Each index is filmed immediately preceding the volume to which it pertains.