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Glossary of Terms Commonly Found in Family Papers: Home

Description

 
In 2003, HSP undertook the Documentary Families Project, which focused on the access and preservation needs of some of the Society’s richest collections of family papers. This three-year effort enabled HSP to preserve and describe dozens of these important collections, which describe the founding and settlement of Pennsylvania, expansion into western counties and relations with Native Americans, and much more.

Project staff (Joanne Danifo, Katherine Gallup, Sarah Heim, and Leslie Hunt) created this glossary of terms related to collections of family papers. However, this guide may be helpful for anyone conducting research in manuscript collections from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.