Office of Records That Should Not Exist

Records Created by No Employee

HAEB-ARC-04 INDEX NOT ACKNOWLEDGED CAP Rev. 12.4

Collection

Records Created by No Employee

Access state

INDEX NOT ACKNOWLEDGED

Custodial office

Office of Records That Should Not Exist

Cataloged

August 19, 2026

Scope and content

This collection consists of documents held by the Bureau in which the originating author field is blank, unsigned, or occupied by a signature for which no personnel record exists.

The Office of Records That Should Not Exist does not maintain an index of this collection. The container list below is provided for reference and is not an index. Requests for the index are answered with the container list. Requests for the container list are answered.

A record is not disqualified from custody by having no author. Custody attaches to the record.

Extent and arrangement

Collection extent: 1.4 linear feet, plus one folder measured separately at 2.1 linear inches. Records described: 7. Records with an identified author: 0. Records with an identified custodian: 7.

Arrangement is by the date appearing on the record. Where a record bears no date, it is filed at the position at which it was received. Where a record bears a date later than the date of receipt, it is filed at the date on the record.

Conditions governing access

Available in the reading room, with the exceptions noted in the container list.

Researchers are asked not to write in the author field of any record in this collection. Three records have been annotated by researchers. In each case the annotation was accepted into the record, and the researcher was recorded as having been present, not as having written.

Container list

RSN-0000-001

Custody transfer receipt. No date. Extent: 1 leaf.

The receipt records the transfer of one folder to this Office. It is signed by Employee 000 as custodian. The Office was established in 1963. The paper stock is consistent with manufacture before 1900.

Access. The receipt is available. The signature is available. The personnel record supporting the signature is not held and is described at RSN-PERSONNEL-000.

RSN-1906-002

Memorandum opening an investigation into the Bureau’s founding. Dated 1906. Extent: 1 leaf.

The author field is blank. The memorandum carries a routing stamp, six initials, and a due date of 1908. Two of the six initials correspond to no employee. The remaining four correspond to employees whose service began after the due date.

The investigation opened by this memorandum has not closed. Its case reference is recorded on the routing stamp and is illegible in a manner consistent with ordinary wear.

RSN-1963-014

Circular citation set. Dated 1963. Extent: 9 leaves.

A set of nine documents, each citing the next, the ninth citing the first. No document in the set bears an author. Each bears a different typewriter.

Arrangement: as received. Rearrangement has been attempted twice, in 1974 and in 2011, and on both occasions the set was returned to the order in which it arrived. The set is complete and cannot be read in order.

RSN-1974-021

Transfer manifest. Dated 1974. Extent: 1 leaf.

Manifest describing Archive Box HAEB-1844-3 during a records consolidation. The box is described as empty, with the instruction not to discard the contents. The author field is blank. The approving official field bears one initial, which matches no employee.

The manifest was amended in 2026 to record that the box contains evidence that the box was correctly described at the time of transfer. The amendment is unsigned.

RSN-2029-003

Future-dated memorandum. Dated 2029. Extent: not established.

This record has not yet been created and is therefore retained by the Office of Future Non-Jurisdiction.

The Office of Future Non-Jurisdiction has confirmed the retention. It has declined to confirm the record. This Office holds the transfer receipt, which describes the item as one memorandum, and which is dated 2026.

RSN-UNFILED-007

Folder. No date. Extent: 1 folder, 0 leaves, 2.1 linear inches.

The contents are not present. The folder is itself cataloged as evidence in a matter that is not identified in this container list. The folder’s tab carries a case reference in the unfiled series.

Access. The folder is available. Researchers may examine the folder. The Office has not received a request to do so.

RSN-PERSONNEL-000

Personnel record. Not created. Not held.

Requests for a personnel record supporting the earliest signature in the Bureau’s holdings are referred to the Division of Biographical Integrity, which has advised that a personnel record cannot be created for a person whose employment cannot be dated, and that the absence of the record is not evidence of the absence of the employment.

The Division has further advised that the signature is valid. The Office has recorded the advice and filed it in this collection, where it is the only item with an identified author.

Related material

1. HAEB Directive 9.9, Records That Should Not Exist, which establishes custody without provenance.
2. HAEB Directive 0.0, Foundational Authority and Related Absence.
3. HAEB Form 0, Request to Establish Prior Existence, described in the orphaned forms collection.
4. CASE HAEB-1844-STOP, The Unsolicited Reply, for the box described at RSN-1974-021.

Finding aid note

Prepared by Elias P. Thorne, Acting Director, Office of Records That Should Not Exist.

The container list is prepared and maintained at the same standard as the collections the Office is permitted to acknowledge. Description does not depend on acknowledgement.

The Office does not maintain an index of this collection. The container list above is complete.