Center for Brooklyn History, Virtual Lunch and Learn-Exploring the Henry Lloyd Ledgers

Historical ledgers are often used in research and can provide information about accounts and financial transactions, including sales, purchases, amounts, names of account holders and even how the items were transported. Join us for a virtual lunch and learn, exploring historical ledgers, how to interpret them and the information they hold. 

The program will highlight the recently digitized Henry Lloyd Ledgers - six ledgers of Henry Lloyd, a Long Island merchant, recording financial transactions and accounts throughout the period 1703 to 1744 - and similar material held in the Center for Brooklyn History collection. 

The CBH collections team and Chief Historian Dominique Jean-Louis will provide an overview of the collection as well as tips and tricks for searching the digitized ledgers, information on how to read and understand the content, and stories the Henry Lloyd ledgers tell. Attendees will leave with an understanding of historical ledgers and how to read them, as well as common abbreviations, what notations may mean, and tips to decipher historical handwritten texts.