New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Archives

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There are six files of index cards held in Archives & Special Collections providing access to several series in Record Group l: SECRETARY RECORDS . The cards are grouped as follows:

The first four card files (First Board of Directors, First Trusteeship, Second Board of Directors, and Second Trusteeship) index records kept by the Corporate Secretary. Records which relate to the parent New Haven Railroad are designated 'A' with a numerical suffix (e.g., A-l2 or A-397). Records relating to subsidiaries or predecessors are designated with different letters followed by numerical suffixes (e.g., Hartford Connecticut Western RR [E-67]). The 'A' Card Files are set up alphabetically by topic or name of individual, business, organization, or governmental body. Within each file are several major sub-groups, each containing a considerable number of entries which are, in turn, subdivided alphabetically by topic. Major subgroups include:

These subgroups usually contain "start-stop" cards to delineate them within the sequence of index cards. Following are two examples of cards from the 'A' Card File. Note that one sample card has multiple index entries for locating the document. Thus, Fitzgerald's salary increase, located in file A-75, could also be accessed under Officers, Sal[aries], D[istrict Claims Agent], or F[itzgerald] with a duplicate card in each location in the card file.

Researchers are advised that considerable overlap exists among the first four card files. The dates of the card files are only approximate. All four card files should be consulted for a complete research effort.

Card File V, Agreements, contains sales, leases, contracts, etc. entered into between the New York, New Haven Hartford Railroad and individuals, businesses, and governmental bodies. The railroad maintained a numerical file accessed by index cards in order to facilitate use of the recorded agreements. Access to the file is alphabetical by name of individual, business or government. The number at the top right indicates the agreement's place in the numerical file sequence. After the numerical system was discontinued, agreements became a subgroup of the Secretary Department 'A' Card File. This card file indexes Record Group 1, Series III: AGREEMENTS. Agreements in other series are indexed by the 'A' file cards (Card Files I-IV).

Card File VI, Subsidiary Companies, indexes the organized papers of the New York, New Haven Hartford Railroad's subsidiary and related companies. As in the 'A' Card Files, the Subsidiary Companies index cards are arranged alphabetically and include some of the major subgroups listed above. A box listing of the documents indexed by this card file is provided in Record Group 1, Series IX: SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES.

This card file contains index cards for some documents not contained in this collection. After using these cards, researchers should check the contents listing for SERIES IX (see Appendix C) in order to confirm that the collection contains documents for each desired company. This card file can not provide direct access to the documents.

Following is a listing of companies in Series IX and the letter prefixes used for each in this card file: