The fonds consists of shipping, business and family papers of the Turner and Reid families of Albert County, New Brunswick. There are shipping papers of the brig "Sherwood" including accounts, correspondence relating to the ship and its cargo. The shipping papers of the "Kesmark" include accounts with firms worldwide for ship provisions and equipment and correspondence relating to shipping. Various types of documentation include quarantine regulations, health certificates, surveying certificates, customs documents, manifests and a list of ship's stores (provisions).
There are discharge papers for seamen giving names and dates, and also a few names of crew signed on in Lubeck. There are ship's log books, including one dated 1890-1891, for a return voyage from Hillsboro to Newark, New Jersey, and others for voyages abroad.
Family correspondence includes letters written between Turner family members both in Canada and aboard ships sailing to destinations in Europe, South America, and the United States. Among other family papers are 3 diaries kept by Lottie Reid Turner in 1879, 1881, and 1883 while aboard ship. There is a Turner-Reid genealogy and the marriage certificate of Lottie Reid and James B. Turner. Also included is a petition to classify the school at Harvey as a superior school.