Registers of Letters Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of North Carolina Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M843, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Another recordkeeping practice of the period was to enter incoming communications into registers of letters received. These entries include such information as the name or office of the correspondent, date of the letter, place from which it was written, abstract of its contents, date of receipt of the letter, and the assigned register entry number. Sometimes there are also cross references to related records of the Assistant Commissioner's office in the form of abbreviations, such as "LS" for the letters sent volumes, "ES" for the endorsements, or "SO" for special orders.

The communications entered in the four volumes of registers of letters received by the Assistant Commissioner, July 1865–June 1869, are arranged alphabetically by initial letter of surname or office of correspondent and thereunder chronologically by date received, and are numbered in sequence for each letter of the alphabet. The entries in the last register cover two overlapping periods: January–April 1869 include those letters received by the Assistant Commissioner and March–June 1869, those received by the Superintendent of Education. The register, together with the letters received, has also been filmed as M844, Records of the Superintendent of Education for the State of North Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1870.

The first register has a "Subject Index," which is an incomplete chronological listing of subjects found in that register. The National Archives has prepared a name index to Register 1. There are names indexes for correspondents and names mentioned for the other volumes. The last register was originally indexed only through February 1869. The National Archives has added to the index to the Assistant Commissioner's office.

Not all letters entered in the registers are among the records of the Assistant Commissioner. Some letters were forwarded to Bureau headquarters at Washington, and others were referred to staff officers or sent to officers subordinate to the Assistant Commissioner. The National Archives has placed an asterisk (*) in the registers by the entry number of each letter that is still in the series of registered letters received. The double asterisk (**) indicate letters received by the Superintendent of Education, reproduced on M844. The citation "F/W" (filed with) indicates a letter was filed with a related letter.