I want to thank you all of who have responded so far. You have all been very helpful with your insightful explainations of the setup and suggestions on how to get the most out the resources. I think it's always valuable to have the local and/or hands-on experienced researchers' advice and point-of-view. Aside from the "regional offices" or however you term it locally, the Bristol records setup seems to be very similar to the way I found the Dutchess court/land records setup for this early time period. If anyone else has other thoughts on other resources or tips for dealing with various offices, please let me know. I hope to find some of the "pre-work" books suggested at my state library. I've looked at some books for RI and MA there, but that was when I was concentrating on NY. I'll check the on-line catalog and ready my attack list for my next visit. Or figure out where I need to go instead. Lisa