Certificates of registry, enrollment and license issued at the port of Edgartown, Massachusetts, 1815-1913

Notes

Many of the documents were not in good condition when they were received in the National Archives; others are missing. . If a document is illegible and the information cannot be found in other documents on film that relate to the same vessel, the staff of the National Archives, upon request, will try to read the document from which the image was made or to find the information in other records in its holdings.

A certificate of registry was required if a vessel engaged in foreign trade. Enrollments and licenses were required for vessels of 20-ton capacity and over that were in the coastal or fishing trades. Copies of licenses, renewed yearly, were filed in customhouses until 1906 when a single form for enrollment and license was issued. Vessels of 5 to 20 ton capacity in coastal or fishing trades received only licenses. A certificate was permanent or temporary depending on whether it was issued at the home port or elsewhere. . The volumes usually record for certificates issued the date, number, and reason for issuance; date, place, and reason for surrender; number, date, and place of issuance of previous certificate; and name, rig, and tonnage of the vessel. Not all entries in the abstracts are complete, nor are certificates always listed chronologically.,.

Microfilm of documents issued by the the Collector of Customs at the port of Edgartown, Massachusetts, 1815-1913, and housed at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Subjects

Locality Subjects

Film/Digital Notes