Probably primary interest at the NA would be census and military records. They will have some homestead records, but land records after the fed. gov has ceded it to an individual will be in the county offices. Federal court records, Native American records, dealings with other nations, letters to & from diplomats, passport info, all of these are things to look for. One thing to remember is that each regional center is assigned responsibility for certain things even though they all have certain things in common (census records, military indices), in particular, records about their region as well as certain other government records. If your local library or family history center has a copy of the book that was written about the National Archives, take some time to sit down and read the chapter about the one you will be going to. It will help clarify your expectations. (Since I just got off a 12 hr night shift, I don't remember the name of the book, but it was very helpful to me when I was getting ready to go to the one in KC so that I was somewhat better prepared--what it didn't give were directions for a stranger to find it.) Karen