Registers of Letters Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Texas 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.M821, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The entries in the two volumes of registers of letters received, February 1866–June 1869, are generally arranged by time period, thereunder alphabetically by the initial letter of the correspondent's surname or office, and thereunder chronologically by date of receipt. Each volume contains a name index. Certain irregularities in arrangement and deviations from standard recordkeeping practices have rendered the registry system difficult to use. Under alphabetical headings the entries are frequently not in strict chronological sequence. Often the space allotted for a particular alphabetical division proved insufficient, and the entries were continued elsewhere in the register. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), insofar as possible, tried to film the entries in both registers in a proper numerical sequence.

Under alphabetical divisions in the first register, some numbers and number sequences were repeated as many as three times, thus resulting in duplicate numbering for different entries. NARA, therefore, added [No. 1], [No. 2], and [No. 3] to the file designations to distinguish between the repeated numbers. In the second register a new numbering sequence was begun on January 1, 1869, but was used only a few weeks. Numbering was then resumed under the old system, skipping those numbers that would have been used for the letters entered under the new registry. NARA has added the omitted old numbers in brackets beside the new numbers in order to achieve a continuous sequence. Both types of bracketed citations have also been added to the corresponding documents in the series of registered letters and reports. Documents in these registered series have been arranged in strict file number sequence irrespective of their dates or the dates they were received.

A number of the documents entered in the registers are no longer to be found among the series of registered letters received. Often, communications were forwarded to Bureau headquarters, referred to staff or subordinate officers, or returned with endorsements to the sender. NARA placed an asterisk (*) near the writer's name in the register for each letter that is still in the series of registered letters received. Reports from subassistant commissioners relating to operations and conditions or murders and outrages were entered in the registers as other correspondence; they are filed in separate series. The register entries for the former reports have been annotated with a double asterisk (**) and for the latter with a triple asterisk (***).

Some letters, although still among the registered letters received, are no longer to be found filed under their original registry designation. Some were subsequently placed in consolidated files with related documents, and others were filed under new designations. NARA added the marginal note [F/W] (Filed With) in the first instance and [F/A] (Filed As) in the second, together with the file designation under which the document can currently be found.