Federal Records for Local Research

 

13 May 2014

Last Tuesday, we thought about the less-fortunate Americans of yesteryear, urban dwellers who left few records, and we brainstormed the kind of resources we might be able to find on them in local courthouses and town halls.

Today's test takes a different tack: What might be found for "poor and elusive" people, both urban and rural, in federal records—other than the "standard" immigration and naturalization records, compiled service records, and military pensions and bounty land? (That's right! You absolutely cannot answer this question with one of those record types.)   

                 

Blog Term

Submitted bycynthiabearon Tue, 05/13/2014 - 20:44

Moonshining cases can also be found.  When federal officers made the raid, the charges were federal and may have been far from home.  Following prosecution, the records for the federal prisons may also produce information,

Jane

Submitted bymosemannon Wed, 05/14/2014 - 03:05

Other collections would be wartime damage claims, and records of the territorial governments, the Freedman's Bureau, and the Department of Indian Affairs.

Submitted byp_pierceon Wed, 05/14/2014 - 09:04

I've found a dozen or so that mention ancestors and family. All were rejected, but the applicants listed their families' information.

Submitted byEEon Wed, 05/14/2014 - 17:07

Great suggestions, everybody!

Excluding the "standard" immigration, naturalization, compiled military, pensions, and bounty-land records, EE's chapter 11 "Government Records" also includes:

  • 11.19 Manuscript materials held by Indian Affairs
  • 11.23 Manuscript land-entry files
  • 11.29 Private land claims
  • 11.30 Survey plat maps
  • 11.31 Tract books
  • 11.33 Draft registrations
  • 11.34 Civilian military employees
  • 11.35 Enlistment papers
  • 11.36 Headstone & burial records
  • 11.41 Captured Conferderate records
  • 11.42 Civil War claims: international
  • 11.43 Civil War claims: Southern
  • 11.44 Congressional records
  • 11.45 Court of Claims case files
  • 11.46 Court records, circuit & district (this is where we'd find the bankruptcy and moonshine cases that Jane and Mosemann mentioned)
  • 11.48 Landowner maps, etc.
  • 11.51 Patent & trademark records
  • 11.52 Photographic files
  • 11.54 Slave narratives
  • 11.56 Federal tax records
  • 11.57 WPA records

Beyond that, EE's chapter 11 also offers glimpses into comparable records of Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Scotland, Spain, and Wales.

Do you ever get the feeling that you could never live long enough to use all the resources available for your pet project?