PastPorts
PastPorts is a monthly publication of the History and Genealogy Department.
Get PastPorts Delivered To Your Inbox
Provide your information in our subscription form and select the emails you would like to receive. You can also complete the form to modify your current preferences or unsubscribe from all of our emails.
PastPorts Newsletter
For the Records
Territorial Papers of the United States
On the 24th of August 1814, British Rear Admiral George Cockburn led aquatic forces into Washington D.C. where foreign troops sacked the capital, burning the White House, the Capitol building, and the Navy Yard (Fig. 1). President James Madison and First Lady Dolley Madison fled to rural Virginia, making their way to Brookeville, Maryland. The President carried the entirety of the U.S. Treasury and the documents of his administration on horseback.
When the British sacked Washington D.C., they exposed the vulnerability of the record-keeping systems of the new nation. From the nation’s founding, federal agencies, including both houses of Congress, were responsible for maintaining their own records. The United States Congressional Serial Set was the first solution. Beginning in 1817, all congresses published their records in print volumes which were distributed throughout the United States to ensure access to congressional documents. It was the first
effort to truly document the workings of the new nation. Today, the U.S. Serial Set is available digitally for the years 1817-1994 on GovInfo.gov.
While this was a strong first step, the U.S. Serial Set was not retroactive. It did not resolve the issue of preserving congressional documents published before 1817 or preserving the numerous documents produced in rural territories of the expanding nation. And there is so much genealogical gold in those documents, which are full of petitions, land transactions, correspondence, government claims, and military records. These territorial records include the many administrations of the government, including gubernatorial appointments to militia posts, appointments of local postmasters, and other civil functions of the government–which often contain historical information about our civil servant ancestors.
When used in conjunction with records of land sales, probate, and other commonly found local record sources, territorial papers can prove a useful resource in the identification of migration patterns and settlement dates. But perhaps–more so than any other resource–the Territorial Papers can prove helpful in answering the all-too-often
troubling question of “why” they came and settled–which is not always clear when one answers the much easier riddle of “when” and “where.”
Read more about the Territorial Papers of the United States.