7 Regions to Trace Early Ports of Entry

Our ancestors may have crossed an ocean, entered through a small coastal port, traveled along a canal, boarded a riverboat, or continued westward by railroad.

An exploration of America's early immigrant ports, the journeys our ancestors made, and the history behind the records genealogists use today.

When we think about our ancestors immigrating to America, many of us immediately think of Ellis Island. We picture families arriving in New York Harbor, carrying their belongings, hoping for a better life in a new country. But Ellis Island was not the beginning of America's immigration story. When researching an immigrant ancestor, it is tempting to begin with Ellis Island. However, an ancestor who arrived before 1892 may have entered through an entirely different port.

Long before Ellis Island opened in 1892, immigrants were arriving through ports scattered along the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, and the Pacific Coast. Some arrived at bustling commercial harbors. Others entered through smaller ports that rarely appear in popular accounts of immigration. And before 1855, there was no dedicated immigrant landing depot like Castle Garden.

For genealogists, understanding this distinction can open new doors in the search for an ancestor's arrival.

Why We Know Castle Garden
National Park Service: Castle Garden Emigrant Depot
On August 3, 1855, Castle Garden opened in New York Harbor. It was America's first facility dedicated entirely to the welfare of arriving immigrants. It brought immigrant reception and assistance together in one place. The facility was intended to provide a safer and more organized arrival experience.

Immigrants could be registered, receive health examinations, exchange money, purchase railroad tickets, contact relatives, and obtain information about their onward journey. Between 1855 and 1889, approximately 75 percent of the immigrants entering the United States during that period passed through Castle Garden. It operated until 1890. Ellis Island opened in 1892, becoming the better-known federal immigration station.

The important distinction is that Castle Garden was not the first place immigrants entered America. It was the first dedicated immigrant reception facility. The date of arrival, the ship, and the port are all important clues. Passenger lists may provide information about an ancestor's age, nationality, occupation, last residence, intended destination, and relatives already in America. These details can help connect an arrival record to the family your ancestral family.

America Had Many Ports of Arrival

During the 19th century, immigrants entered the United States through numerous ports. While New York became the most prominent gateway, it was far from the only one. Major ports included Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans. Smaller ports along the East Coast, Gulf Coast, and Great Lakes also received immigrant passengers. On the West Coast, San Francisco and other ports became important gateways, particularly as immigration from Asia and the Pacific increased.

The National Archives maintains passenger arrival records organized by port, reflecting the wide geographic reach of immigration. National Archives: Passenger Arrival Records

Consider some of the places where our ancestors may have first entered America:
Major Atlantic and Gulf ports.

1. Delaware and Pennsylvania: Wilmington and Philadelphia, along the Delaware River.
2. Maryland: Baltimore, a major immigrant gateway.
3. Virginia: Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Alexandria.
4. Louisiana: New Orleans, a major port connecting ocean arrivals to the Mississippi River system.
5. The Gulf Coast: Mobile, Galveston, and other coastal ports.
6. The Great Lakes: Buffalo, Rochester, Oswego, and other ports connected to inland waterways.
7. The Pacific Coast: San Francisco and other western ports.

Region	Ports
Delaware	Wilmington
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia
Maryland	Baltimore, Annapolis, Havre de Grace
Virginia	Norfolk, Portsmouth, Alexandria
Louisiana	New Orleans
Massachusetts	Boston, Salem, New Bedford
Maine	Portland, Bangor

These ports were not all equally important, and the volume of immigrant arrivals varied considerably. But they remind us that our ancestors could have entered America in many places.

Many records are designated by nationality.

AAD: Immigrants

Scenario: What Happened When Immigrants Arrived?
Imagine arriving in America after weeks at sea. You may have been traveling with your spouse, children, or other relatives. You may have had only a few belongings and limited money. You might not have spoken English. You had reached America, but what happened next?

Before dedicated immigrant landing depots existed, immigrant ships generally docked at ordinary commercial piers. Passengers were processed aboard the ships, and customs officials collected passenger information.

There was no single, centralized reception facility providing all the services an immigrant might need. That did not mean there were no regulations or records. The federal government began requiring passenger manifests in 1820, and customs officials maintained inbound passenger lists. Some ports also had quarantine facilities to protect against the spread of disease.

But receiving immigrants and providing them with assistance were two different things. A passenger could be documented upon arrival and still have to navigate an unfamiliar city, locate transportation, exchange money, and find a place to stay. For many immigrants, the journey was far from over when the ship reached the dock.

1. The Great Lakes: An Often-Overlooked Gateway
The Great Lakes deserve special attention in the history of immigration. Today, we may think of immigration as an ocean voyage followed by arrival at a major coastal city. But the Great Lakes connected immigrants to the interior of North America. 

The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 helped link New York City with the Great Lakes region. Immigrants could travel inland by canal, lake, and other transportation routes. Ports such as Buffalo, New York, became important points along these routes. An immigrant might arrive in New York City by ocean-going ship and continue westward by canal or lake transportation. Another passenger might arrive through a Great Lakes port after traveling through Canadian waterways.

This raises an important genealogical question: Was the port listed in an ancestor's record the place where they first entered America, or was it simply one stop along a much longer journey?

The answer can make a difference when searching for passenger records.

2. New Orleans: A Gateway to the Interior

New Orleans played a particularly important role in America's immigration story. Located at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the city connected ocean-going vessels with the extensive inland river system. Immigrants arriving in New Orleans could travel upriver toward communities throughout the Mississippi Valley and the Midwest.

For families who eventually settled in Missouri, Illinois, or other parts of the interior, New Orleans may have been an important part of their journey. The city reminds us that immigration was not simply a movement from Europe to the East Coast. It was also a movement into the expanding communities of the American interior.

3.  East Coast to West Coast Around Cape Horn

This was a common path for our early ancestors to reach the western territories and California

Research Tips

The National Archives provides a helpful starting point for identifying passenger arrival records by port:

Browse Immigration Records by Port of Entry

The Journey Did Not End at the Port
The port where they arrived was only the beginning of their American story. As genealogists, we have the opportunity to look beyond the passenger list and ask what happened next:
Where did they go? 

Who was waiting for them? 

How did they reach their final destination? 

What challenges did they face as they began their lives in a new country?

Happy Researching.  See you Friday the 13th (Nov) at MGC Lock-In. 

Midwest Genealogy Center Lock-In, 13 Nov 2026

Countdown: Listen in to this announcement:

Found your ancestor's name, rank, and service dates? Kathleen's next question is: "What else?"

 
Her new book, Behind the Uniform, Volume One: The Early Wars, goes on sale Saturday, October 24, and she's signing copies at 2 p.m. at the Midwest Genealogy Center. Save the date!
Visit tracingancestors.org to learn more.

The book was written for researchers like you - those who want to know what comes next, especially after having found an ancestor's name, rank, and service dates. Its 416 pages cover the French and Indian War through the Civil War, showing how one record leads to another through service records, pension files, bounty-land records, pay records, claims, land records, and court records. It's packed with real-world case studies, chapter checklists, and an appendix of research tools, including timelines and logs.

Register for the free book signing event with Kathleen and moderator Kimberly Alberg: 

https://bit.ly/4yQsgtj 
For those who wish to purchase the book, they can do that too. She will be signing them that day. And they will be discounted, and of course no shipping fee for in-person.

The book publication is supported in part by Missouri Humanities & Missouri Humanities Trust Fund. Thanks to the support of the Midcontinent Libraries: Midwest Genealogy Center and Woodneath Story Center

#genealogy #familyhistory #veterans #historians #archives #libraries #genealogysocieties #military

11 Overlooked Records for Children Sent to Reform Schools.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 22, 1907 ·

 "If you think you had it bad, think about the boys sent to the Missouri Reform School in Boonville."

Originally established to educate, train, and reform juvenile offenders, the Missouri Reform School for Boys instead, like many other Reform Schools across the nation, became known for overcrowding, violence, poor living conditions, and repeated criticism from investigators. For many boys, the institution became a place of survival rather than rehabilitation.

Abuse Always An Issue
The first known juvenile reformatory in the U.S was the private  New York House of Refuge in Manhattan, NY.  It was established in 1825. The first publicly funded reform school was the State Reform School for Boys, later known as the Lyman School for Boys in Westborough, Massachusetts. It was opened in Nov. 1848. Both institutions have extensive records of severe inmate abuse spanning from the 19th century into modern history:

• Excessive Corporal Punishment: Severe physical beatings for minor behavioral infractions 
• Labor Exploitation: Inmates are used as a source of cheap, forced labor for outside commercial contractors. Boys manufactured items like brushes and shoes, while girls performed endless domestic work. 
• Lack of actual reform: Virtually no meaningful classroom or vocational instruction. 

Where Are the Records

                                           Episode: Forgotten Children: Genealogy and Lost Burial Grounds

These institutional records are often preserved at the state level.  The New York House of Refuge records are held in the New York State Archives in Albany, NY. There are over 350 volumes of data holding the Board of Managers' meeting minutes, daily logs, committee reports, and internal investigative documents regarding staff misconduct.

Possible Finds in Records

1. Inmates Are Named: These records are a century old, so juvenile privacy laws no longer apply.
2. Workers and Perpetrators Are Named. Legislative and state investigation records name superintendents, guards, and contractors accused of cruelty or financial exploitation. 
   Check out the records, like the New York State Assembly committee reports from 1872 and 1924
   

Records for More Recent Reform Schools

If looking for a more recent ancestor, inmate, or worker, you must expand your research.
In researching the Glen Mills Schools, established in 1826, later named the Philadelphia House of Refuge, which closed in 2019, you will want to look at the following archival sources: 

1. Government Investigative Reports: The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Pennsylvania Auditor General hold the extensive licensing violation and emergency closure reports from 2019.
2. Legal Archives: Extensive complaints, depositions, and testimonies are filed under mass tort litigation in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas (Philadelphia County) and federal district courts.
3. Journalistic Archives: The Philadelphia Inquirer, and local / state newspaper collections.

True or False?

This article, which may have been sensationalized by a zealous journalist, suggests that girls, in this case an Indian girl, also resided at the Missouri Reform School in 1909. More than once, I have seen these cases. When the girls are sentenced, they are often housed and must labor as servants for the warden, governor, or other local dignitary. They were often sexually abused. Read: Penitentiary Records: Part I Women in Prison. 

Newspapers often preserve names, circumstances, escapes, court proceedings, and family connections that never appear in official reform school files. For genealogists, they are often the bridge that makes it possible to identify and reconstruct an ancestor's experience.

Inmates Protected, Perpetrators / Abusers Named
Inmates: Most inmate names are protected because many victims were minors when the abuse happened, or because of ongoing privacy concerns in modern sexual abuse cases. Victims are widely listed as "John Doe" or by initials in class-action lawsuits.
However, some adult survivors waive their anonymity

Abusers: Public civil lawsuits and state reports include the names of administrators who failed to protect students and fostered a cover-up culture.
Counselors or guards who physically beat children are named in internal employment records, police reports, and court depositions. 

Why The Confusion?
It was a common practice to change the name of reform schools, especially after negative publicity. The infamous Booneville Reformatory, also known as the Missouri Training School for Boys, was established in 1887 in Boonville, Missouri. The original mission emphasized education, vocational training, discipline, and giving young offenders a second chance. However, this goal failed to reach reality.

6 Name Changes
Their name changes reflect their effort to bury their reputation and to change its purpose: 

Feature	Missouri Reformatory (1915–1933)	Boonville Correctional Center (1983–Present)
Legal Status	Juvenile / Young Adult Reform School	Adult State Prison
Inmate Age	Boys as young as 7 up to young men aged 21 (sometimes 25).	Adult men (aged 18+ or minors certified as adults).
Philosophy	"Rehabilitation" via forced farm labor, trade learning, and military drill.	Punishment, containment, and state-level adult rehabilitation.
Target Crime	Truancy, incorrigibility, petty theft, up to early felony convictions.	State felony convictions (adult crimes).

The Names Of One Institution

1. Missouri Reform School for Boys (1887–1903) – Original name
2. Missouri Training School for Boys (1903–1915) – Attempt to shift the institutional focus from strict punishment toward education and vocational training.
3. Missouri Reformatory (1915–1933) - Overlapping of 7-year-old truant boys that co-mingled on campus with 21- to 25-year-old convicted felons. They were assigned separate dorm cottages, but records suggest nefarious behaviors. In 1948, older inmates beat two young boys to death
4. Missouri Training School for Boys (1933–1983)
5. Boonville Correctional Center on July 1, 1983. Adult men aged 18+; no children

Their reprehensible reputation has been detailed: inadequate food, assaults among inmates, escapes, chronic understaffing, and deteriorating facilities. Although intended for juveniles, the institution eventually held offenders well into adulthood. One of the most troubling practices were men approaching thirty years of age were confined alongside children as young as seven.

As security concerns increased, the campus became less like a school and more like a prison. In 1983, the facility closed as a reform school and was converted into the Boonville Correctional Center. It was used as State-level punishment, containment, and adult rehabilitation maximum security infrastructure with armed guards, high security fencing, razor wire, and reinforced cell blocks.

First Step to Researching
Knowing the name changes helps the researchers: 

If your subject was a child learning a trade in an open-campus environment, look under Missouri Training School for Boys.

• If your subject was in a highly dangerous environment where kids and adult felons were mixed, look under the Missouri Reformatory.
• If your subject was a convicted adult criminal in a secure prison with razor wire, look under Boonville Correctional Center.
  

After the disastrous "Reformatory" era, where adults and kids were mixed, the state built a separate prison for older youths elsewhere (Algoa Farms).

Older Records' Holding

Historical records for the "Booneville Reformatory" are held at the Missouri Secretary of State's Archives Division, Record Group 213 (Department of Corrections). Again, older records hold the boy's name. Ledger entries indicate the boy's name, age, race, specific offense, and the length of their sentence. It even tracks historical "firsts".

Perpetrators/Staff are also named

Across the Nation, Same Fate
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reform schools across America developed similar reputations. Many began with progressive intentions but struggled with overcrowding, inadequate funding, harsh discipline, and abuse.

Among the better-known institutions were:

• New York House of Refuge (New York City) – America's first juvenile reformatory, opened in 1825.
• Illinois State Training School for Boys (St. Charles, Illinois) – criticized for overcrowding and corporal punishment.
• Ohio Boys' Industrial School (Lancaster, Ohio) – investigations documented poor conditions and abuse.
• Pennsylvania Reform School at Morganza – frequently criticized for harsh discipline.
• Whittier State School (California) – originally promoted as progressive but later faced investigations into abuse and neglect.
• Florida School for Boys at Marianna – perhaps the most infamous, where decades of documented abuse eventually led to state investigations and archaeological searches for unmarked graves.

For family historians, these institutions represent more than dark chapters in history. They often explain why a child disappeared from the census, why a family became separated, or why later records describe an individual as having been "raised by the state."

Finding Reform School Records

Missouri State Archives

Researching children placed in reform schools requires looking beyond traditional genealogy sources. A boy may have spent only a year at Boonville, but that year could generate records in four or five different repositories. 

Valuable records may be found in:

1. Juvenile court commitment
2. Sheriff's transport records
3. Admission register
4. Biennial reports
5. State Board inspections
6. Superintendent correspondence
7. Apprenticeship records
8. Newspaper accounts
9. Census records
10. Military draft registrations
11. Death certificates

Research Notes:
Many nineteenth-century annual reports include lists of inmates, ages, counties of commitment, reasons for confinement, occupations, and outcomes after release.
Because juvenile records often remain restricted, researchers should also search newspapers, legislative reports, county histories, and state government publications. These sources frequently identify children by name while documenting investigations or institutional reforms.

Institutional records represent a real-life interruption for children who are often overlooked.

From Records to Stories: Learn From Denise Kiernan

Why Every Soldier Has a Story

This past week I had the pleasure of attending an author event unlike most book signings. Held in the beautifully restored Grandel Theatre in St. Louis and hosted by Missouri Humanities, the evening celebrated the release of Obstinate Daughters by historian and bestselling author Denise Kiernan.

The event carried special meaning for me because it was sponsored by the Missouri Humanities, the same organization that awarded a grant supporting the Tracing Ancestors upcoming military research guidebook authored by me, Behind the Uniform: Every Soldier Has a Story (release date Oct 2026)

As Denise spoke about her years of research, I found myself smiling more than once. Her process sounded remarkably familiar. She described spending years immersed in archives, personal papers, government documents, historical societies, libraries, and manuscript collections. She followed tiny clues, reconstructed forgotten lives, verified evidence, and patiently assembled a narrative from scattered historical fragments.

In other words...|
She researches exactly the way genealogists do. The difference is not in the research. It is in the final product. Genealogists often stop after identifying the records. Historians like Denise transform those records into compelling narratives that allow readers to experience the past through the lives of real people.

That realization struck me because it echoes the final message of Behind the Uniform.

Throughout the book I encourage researchers to think beyond simply collecting military records. Service records, pensions, newspapers, congressional documents, local histories, cemetery records, manuscript collections, and family papers all contain pieces of a person's life. Individually they are valuable. Together they tell a story. Every soldier has one.

Military genealogy is not simply about documenting enlistments, battles, or pensions. It is about understanding who that soldier was before the war, what happened during the conflict, and how military service shaped the rest of his or her life.

The records provide the evidence.
The researcher provides the interpretation.
The story preserves the history.

Listening to Denise explain the years behind Obstinate Daughters reminded me that great historical writing is built upon careful documentation. Readers often see the finished narrative but rarely appreciate the thousands of documents, false leads, courthouse visits, archival discoveries, and countless hours of analysis that made the book possible.

As genealogists, we perform many of those same research tasks every day. Whether we are searching military service records, pension files, county histories, Congressional documents, newspapers, or manuscript collections, we are uncovering the evidence needed to reconstruct lives that might otherwise be forgotten.

Not every family historian will write a published history. But every family historian has the opportunity to preserve a story before it disappears. That, ultimately, is why we research.

I left St. Louis inspired, not because I wanted to become a historical novelist, but because I was reminded that evidence without interpretation is simply information. Research becomes meaningful when it connects people to the human stories behind the documents.

This October 24, I hope to continue that conversation during the launch of Behind the Uniform: Every Soldier Has a Story. My goal is not simply to teach researchers where military records are located, but to show how those records can be transformed into the stories that preserve our shared history.

After all, records may survive for centuries.
Stories are what ensure they continue to matter.

My sincere thanks to Missouri Humanities for supporting both ends of the historical journey - research and storytelling. Their grant to Tracing Ancestors for Behind the Uniform: Every Soldier Has a Story is helping preserve the stories of America's veterans, while their sponsorship of Denise Kiernan's Obstinate Daughters reminds us how powerful those stories become when careful research is transformed into compelling history.

Organizations like Missouri Humanities ensure that our shared past is not only preserved in archives, but also brought to life for future generations. For that, I am deeply grateful.

How Genealogists Use the 1926 Free State Census

 

 The Features

One hundred years after it was taken, the first census of the Irish Free State is fully digitized, freely accessible, and packed with details that genealogists have been waiting decades to see.

This 1926 Census covers 26 counties of the Irish Free State. The National Archives of Ireland released the 1926 Census to the public. It is online, free to search, and accessible to all with an internet connection. There is no subscription, and no paywall. 

For genealogists trying to connect families across generations, or identify a great-grandparent's village of origin, or understand the working lives of their ancestors, this census provides the answers. Researchers will find digitized and indexed handwritten household forms that ancestors filled out. 

For example, little was known about Elizabeth Murphy of Donegal until her Uncle was identified. It is known she is not Catholic but Church of Ireland, but it was the 1926 Census that attached her to her uncle, Robert Chambers. It also tells the researcher that she was not born in Cullinean as her Uncle, but in Tullynavinn, a rural townland located on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland 

          

Elizabeth Murphy in Chambers Household.

Even though more information is needed, we have now connected two generations. 

A Census Unlike Any Before It!

The 1926 Census wasn't just a head count. It was the first census conducted by an independent Irish government, taken a decade after the War of Independence and the Civil War. This 1926 Census was the result of a new nation taking "stock, an enumeration of itself.
This was the first Irish census to exclude Northern Ireland, covering only the 26 counties of the Free State. Some forms were completed in Irish.

Questions:

• employers by name
• duration of current marriages
• number of children born 
• language recognition: forms could be completed entirely in Irish, reflecting the new state's commitment to the language's revival. Previously, many used anglicized English equivalents required by the British Colonial rule.
  

  

  Instructions on Form A, Census of the Irish Free State, 1926  

• Full name, relationship to the head of household, and exact age in years and months

• Specific birthplace down to the townland level, and whether the person could speak Irish 

• Occupation and the specific name of their employer or workplace

• For married women: duration of the current marriage and the number of living children

A Snapshot of a Nation in Transition

The data proves these 26 counties are not exclusively Catholic. Roman Catholics made up 92.6% of the Free State's nearly 3 million people. The remaining 7.4%, over 220,000 individuals, belonged to other faiths: 

Religion, Church of Ireland, Protestant Episcopalians

• Protestant Episcopalians (Church of Ireland); primarily 
• Presbyterians concentrated in Donegal
• Methodists in Dublin and Cork
• Jewish and Baptist communities in Dublin.

Name: Russia; Religion:Hebrew; Occupation: House Furniture Shop Keeper

 How to Access the Record
The digitized household returns are available through the National Archives of Ireland's 1926 Census Search platform. Researchers can search by county, townland, street, or directly by first name and surname. 

Since many forms were completed in Irish or used traditional Gaelic spellings, be sure to try multiple versions of your ancestor's name. An interactive map also lets you browse households by location.

Congressional Serial Set

Using Serial Set to Research
The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, filled with genealogical tips, hints, and treasures, is not getting its fair share of attention by genealogists or other historical researchers. I can’t think of one reason why this free-resource is not being perused on a regular basis. It’s full of what we love – gossip, scandal, court cases and names of both supportive and vile neighbors. It covers topics on women, African Americans, Native Americans, students, soldiers, sailors, pensioners, landowners, and inventors. Is this not the genealogists’ dream?  And,  it’s free (with a library card).

Family researchers with enslaved ancestors or those descendants from their enslavers will want to peruse the Congressional Serial Set Records. This collections hold a great part of the US history; much from the "everyday " citizen.

Accessing the U.S. Congressional Serial Set

If you aren’t familiar with the Serial Set, be sure to read U.S. Congressional Serial Set for Genealogists, Part I. The Serial Set is an online resource available via your local library that subscribes to HeritageQuest Online; and, it’s accessible remotely using your home computer with a library card.

Tied to Juneteenth?

Listen to the full podcast: Finding Ancestors in The Congressional Serial Set

If you use the keyword  “slaves,” there are 659 occurrences. Some of these documents give us social history and legal proceedings void of ancestors’ names and may be deemed less than helpful to the researcher. But the collection also includes claims for slaves killed in the military – especially useful if you are stuck in the War of 1812 era, pension appeals, land disputes, and even emancipation information like that of  Jane Hall (above).

Emancipation Papers: Francis Hall and Others.

Maryland slave Jane Hall, born 1799 ran away from her master in 1820 and subsequently was manumitted (as were her heirs) by Alexander Claxton in 1821. (Francis Hall, 55th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Rpt No. 123).

Pension: Richard Jackson 22 Jul 1890 

Many pensions were settled at the congressional level and the US Serial Set has detailed accounts of the requests, proposals and appeals.  Richard Jackson, a slave and teamster for the Union Army was shot, captured and imprisoned, attempted an escape, shot again. The account is pretty detailed, and it also gives his slave master’s name as Dr. Charles J. Manning. (Serial Set-ID:2815 House of Representatives, Report No 2784, 51^st Congress, 1^st Session).

Land: On the Application of a Cherokee Indian Woman to Sell a Reservation of Land Which Was Made to Her Husband, Who was Adjudged to be a Runaway Slave. 

 A difficult research project is the intermarrying of Native Americans and African Americans residing in the southeast. A report dated 8 Feb 1831 documents Sally Johnson, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Jackson County, Alabama married a runaway slave Peter Johnson. Peter was “reclaimed by his master.” The legality of selling of Peter’s 650 acres of reservation land was in question. (Serial Set: A3P033 Publ. land No. 892, 21^st Congress, 2^nd Session). 

Runaway Slave Names: Benjamin Oden; 7 April 1834. 

Slave Frederick ran away from his master, Benjamin Oden in Maryland,1814. He enlisted in the military as alias William Williams. Military men were entitled to bounty land and the master wanted to claim the bounty land that would have been given to William Williams, as if he were a free man. This one report gave us the name of slave, freeman alias and master. (Serial Set-ID 262; Benjamin Oden, Rep No 392, 23^rd Congress, 1^st Session, House of Representative). 

 In Honor of Juneteenth 2026, this excerpt is from Jan 2013 blogpost: Using U. S. Congressional Serial Set, Part II.