diff --git a/src/file.jl b/src/file.jl
index f5b2cd3..f0dfc8f 100644
--- a/src/file.jl
+++ b/src/file.jl
@@ -55,10 +55,11 @@ mutable struct FITFileReader
     bytes_read::Int64
     header::Union{FITHeader, Nothing}
     body::Union{Vector{DataRecord}, Nothing}
+    mesg_map::Dict{Real, AbstractString}
 end
 
 
-blank_file(fp::AbstractString) = FITFileReader(fp, nothing, 0, nothing, nothing)
+blank_file(fp::AbstractString) = FITFileReader(fp, nothing, 0, nothing, nothing, Dict())
 blank_row() = DataRecord(nothing)
 blank_header_byte() = RecordHeader(false, false, 0)
 
@@ -140,9 +141,13 @@ function read_record_content!(f::FITFileReader, hdr::RecordHeader)::Union{Defini
             def_header_developer_fields = read_bytes!(f, def_header_developer_flag * 3)
         end
 
+        # Associate the global message type with this local message type.
+        global_mesg_type = get_mesg_num_string(byte_vec_to_int(def_header_bytes[3:4]))
+        f.mesg_map[hdr.local_mesg_type] = global_mesg_type
+        
         DefinitionBody(
             def_header_bytes[2] == 0 ? "littleendian" : "bigendian",
-            get_mesg_num_string(byte_vec_to_int(def_header_bytes[3:4])),
+            global_mesg_type,
             def_header_bytes[end]
         )
     end