Each affidavit or petition was handled separately, and the following series of container lists and indices provide access to various names, geographical locations, and post-Missouri residences of the Mormon population

Though the affidavits and petitions were initially collected because of the Mormon expulsion from Caldwell and Daviess counties, a significant number also detail Mormon difficulties in other northern Missouri counties during the so-called Mormon War of 1838-1839.

One of the surprising things about the affidavits, ostensibly sworn to elicit action from Congress for losses during the Mormon War is the number (and the detailed accounts within that number) of affidavits dealing with the Mormon expulsion from Jackson County in 1833 and again in 1834 after some Mormons returned to the County (see affidavits of Charles Hulet and James B.F. Page).

A description of the collection and an analysis of the contents of it is to be found in Paul C. Richards, "Missouri Persecutions: Petitions for Redress," Brigham Young University Studies, XIII (Summer 1973), pp. 520-543.