Registers of Letters Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, 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.M999, Series 7
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Registers of letters received are also typical of 19th–century record–keeping practices. In addition to a summary of the contents of an incoming letter, the registers usually include identifying information, such as the name and sometimes the office of the writer, the date of receipt, the date of communication, the place from which it was written, and the entry number assigned at the time of receipt.

The first four volumes of registers of letters received, June 18, 1865–January 25, 1869, are arranged by time periods. The entries in the volume are arranged by initial letter of surname of correspondent and thereunder are arranged and numbered by date of receipt. Entries in the fifth volume, January 1, 1865–May 5, 1869, are arranged and numbered by the date of receipt. There were originally name indexes to all volumes except the fourth. The NARS staff has supplied a name index for volume 4, and the index is filmed immediately preceding the volume. Entries in volumes 1 – 4 include cross–reference to the volumes of endorsements sent. These cross–references consist of the notation "EB" (endorsement book) followed by the number of the page number. Volume 5 contains copies of endorsements sent along with the register for the period January 1, 1865–May 5, 1869.

Because the number of pages allotted to each alphabetical division in the volume sometimes proved insufficient, it became necessary to continue the entries elsewhere in the volume. The NARS staff has filmed the registers in correct order; therefore, some of the pages do not appear in the original numerical sequence.

A number of documents entered in the registers are no longer 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. The NARS staff has annotated the registers with a single asterisk to show which letters are still on file among the registered letters received. Entries marked with a double asterisk are on file in other series reproduced in this microfilm publication.