Business Records and Commerce
Account books, ledgers, trade records and other papers created in the course of business. These records may contain company histories and lists of officers and employees.

Merchant Marine
Records dealing with privately owned commercial ships, their personnel, and records.

Occupations
Records and information for a specific job or trade. This includes information on guilds, unions, apprenticeships, etc. (This topic does not include government service. Government service is assigned to "Officials and Employees.")

Officials and Employees
Records and lists of public officials and employees working for local, state, and national governments; international agencies; or institutions under government direction.

Pensions
Records of compensation for employment, disability, reparation, service, etc. The records include lists of eligible people and names of family members, heirs, etc.

Schools
Records about educational institutions and their students. These include lists, records, and yearbooks of students, graduates, and teachers.

Correctional Institutions
Records of institutions that confined people convicted of breaking the law (criminals, debtors, etc.). These records may list the names of people held in the institution.

Politics and Government
Information about the politics or government of an area. This includes discussions of parliament, feudal society, economic policy, national or local governments, etc.

Public Records
Any record created by civil authorities that does not fit under a more specific topic.

Taxation
Description and records of a tax system, including names of people required to pay the tax, amount paid, lists of property, etc.

Town Records
Records kept by town governments in New England and parts of New York and New Jersey. New England town records include minutes of town meetings, election of town officers, freemen's lists, voting lists, school records, road surveys, licenses, warnings out, accounts and reports of town officers, earmarks of cattle and sheep, and estrays (stray animals). They may also include records of births, marriages, marriage intentions, deaths, tax lists, town boundaries, the town militia, and other miscellaneous business of the town.

Voting Registers
Lists of registered or eligible voters in countries, cities, or electoral districts. The registers may list male property owners only.

Medical Records
Records about the medical field. They include hospital records; records of doctors, midwives (babies delivered), or other practitioners; lists of patients; licenses; etc.

Return to Top of Page