Carleton's Loyalist Index and The Book of Negroes
A Select Index to Names of Loyalists and their Associates Contained in the British Headquarters Papers, New York City 1774-1783 The Carleton Papers
The Papers
The British Headquarters Papers comprise about 30,000 manuscript pages and are available on microfilm at the National Archives of Canada. The collection of papers is referred to as the British Headquarters Papers, New York City 1774-1783 or the Carleton Papers. The records were kept by successive Commanders-in Chief of the British Army in North America during the American Revolution. They document the conduct of the war, the civil administration, and the lives, not only of the British Military, but also the civilians and loyalist soldiers who passed through New York.
The Project
The King's Name Project is a project of the Sir Guy Carleton Branch, United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. The purpose of the project was to index, selectively, names of loyalists and associated people found in the British Headquarters Papers. The project involved several researchers reading the microfilm and creating an index card, containing pertinent information, for each loyalist name. There are about 50,000 index cards available covering names from A to Z.
• Index to Carleton's Loyalist Index: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Given Names
• Index to Carleton's Book of Negroes
Documentation for Carleton's Loyalist Index & Carleton's Book of Negroes
- Brochure - a brief description of the project and the databases and an order form.
- British - describes in detail what each field in the Carleton's Loyalist Index database contains.
- Calendar - lists the range of document numbers found in the British Headquarters Papers.
- Kingname - contains a table of Document numbers.
- Kingnotes - contains a series of notes about the people and places mentioned in the British Headquarters Papers.
- Introneg - describes in detail what each field in the Book of Negroes database contains.
- Negnotes - contains notes made when reading the Book of Negroes in order to make the index.
Importance of the Index
This index is an exceptional guide to information for anyone interested in the Loyalists (white or black), soldiers and civilian refugees, or German soldiers who passed through New York during the American Revolution. It will be especially valuable for genealogists as well as historians, ethnographers and other specialists who formerly had only a short-entry, general index to help them research. Now specific data will be easy to locate and manipulate.
Which Ancestors?
The index can be used to find ancestors who passed through New York City during the Revolution, ancestors who fled or were evacuated, ancestors sent to Canada under specific orders, ancestors who were soldiers of a British Regiment demobilized in Canada, ancestors who were soldiers of a German Regiment, "rebels" who: wrote letters to Headquarters, whose property was confiscated, or who were imprisoned.
Black History
This index is invaluable for Black History because it contains many names of individuals, previously scattered throughout the documents: loyalist soldiers, and freed or enslaved civilian refugees. The index also includes the so-called "Book of Negroes" which is a register of refugees of colour giving references to 2,831 people many of whom went to Nova Scotia. There is extensive information about them such as their names, sex, health, distinguishing marks, status (free or slave), origins, names of their white associates, and the ships used to carry them.
Carleton's Loyalist Index and The Book of Negroes
The Sir Guy Carleton Branch has completed the task of taking the basic handwritten information from the King's Name Project index cards and has entered the data into a computer database. The database is available in DBF (DBASE III+), XLS (EXCEL), and CSV formats which can be imported into most current database programs and can also be read by spreadsheet programs. The CSV format can be imported into most recent word processors.
For general use, the database is available for sale in Adobe PDF format.
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