Registers of Letters Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Alabama, 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.M809, Series 6
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Registers of letters received are also typical of nineteenth–century recordkeeping practices. In addition to a summary of the contents of the incoming letter, the registers usually include such identifying information as the name and sometimes the office of the writer, the date of receipt, the date of the communication, the place from which it was written, and the entry number assigned at the time of receipt. The entries in the two volumes of registers of letters received, June 1866–April 1869, are arranged alphabetically by initial letter of the correspondent's surname or office and there under chronologically by date of receipt of the communication. The volumes are cross–referenced to the endorsement books by a citation giving the file number of the endorsement.

The registers do not relate to the unbound series of letters received. Apparently most or all of the letters registered were either endorsed and returned to the sender or forwarded, generally to higher authorities in the Washington Bureau headquarters or to subordinates in the subdistricts.

The third register of letters received May 23, 1367–April 1, 1868, is arranged chronologically by date of receipt of communication. Unlike the other registers, which contain a summary of the incoming letter, the entries in this volume give only a brief statement indicating the content.

Some of the letters registered in this volume are interfiled with the unbound series of letters received described below.