TIP #247: HOW TO FIND TREASURES AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES. I am thrilled to use this column by George G. Morgan with permission granted by the author and Ancestry both. My thanks for this permission! "I frequently hear from readers that they would like to check to see if the National Archives has anything about their ancestors. Many say that they are intimidated by the volume of what might be there, or by the bureaucracy involved with requesting copies of records. Another E-mail arrived this week from a reader who would like to help a friend overseas to access and use the National Archives. Let me tell you that the National Archives is a great place to find materials and that they are easy to work with! In "Along Those Lines . . . " this week, let's discuss the National Archives of the United States and the tremendous resources at their Web site that can help you best use their resources. BACKGROUND. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the repository for many of the historical treasures of the United States. Besides the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are many, many documents of our national history. These include materials such as: military and service records for the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and World War I; many ships' passenger arrival records; some immigration and naturalization records; records from the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company and other records of interest to African American researchers; microfilm of the decennial Federal census records from 1790 through 1920 (minus almost all of 1890); Dawes Commission records and other records relating to Native American research; and a variety of other perhaps less common documents that may help you with your genealogical research. Genealogists and family historians are the most numerous of the users of NARA's resources. NARA has therefore compiled a Genealogy Page at their Web site, at http://www.nara.gov/genealogy, which contains an excellent collection of information of special interest to family history researchers. These include lists of free pamphlets and publications for sale that will help you determine what materials exist, where they are located, in what format they can be found (original vs. microform), and how to purchase any microform materials you might want to own. In order to access the NARA materials most efficiently, you need to know what NARA has and how to obtain copies. Your best starting point is at the NARA Web site at http://search.nara.gov. Here you will see tabs across the top of the Web page and a click on a tab takes you to a whole category of information. The "Research Room" tab is where you want to go first. THE ONLINE RESEARCH ROOM: The "Research Room" area is one of the genealogist's best resources for information at NARA. Did you know that there is more than one NARA facility? Many people think only of the building in Washington, DC. However, there also 13 regional NARA sites, as well as the presidential libraries. If you visit http://www.nara.gov/regional/nrmenu.html, you will find a list of all the sites, a general description of the materials held there, a Web address for each location with driving directions and hours, an E-mail address and a telephone number. Make certain that you know the correct place to contact or to visit for the records you seek. Different records are stored at different locations. RECORD GROUPS: To effectively locate materials held by NARA, you should understand a little about record groups. Record groups are categories of like materials A description of the record group concept at NARA can be found at http://www.nara.gov/research/tools/rgconcpt.html. A full catalog of record groups, their number, contents and location can also be found at http://www.nara.gov/research/findaids/abc/part_a.html (please note the underscore character between part and a in the address). If you take the time to review the lists of record groups, you will be amazed at the range of materials encompassed by the NARA holdings. PUBLICATIONS: NARA has a wide array of publications describing their holdings. Check their descriptions at http://www.nara.gov/publications/pubindex.html. A specific Web page containing aids for family historians can be found at http://www.nara.gov/publications/genihome.html. OBTAINING COPIES/USING THE RIGHT FORMS TO REQUEST THEM: Most important, however, to those of us who wish to obtain copies of specific records for our ancestors from NARA is the Web page, http://www.nara.gov/research/ordering/ordrfrms.html. This page contains information about the six types of records most requested by genealogists and the NARA forms required to obtain copies of those records. The record types and the forms required are: ~ Military service and pension records in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC (NATF Form 80) ~ Military service records in the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO (Standard Form 180) ~ Ship passenger arrival records (NATF Form 81) ~ Census records (NATF Form 82) ~ Eastern Cherokee land application records (NATF Form 83) ~ Land entry files (NATF Form 84) Information regarding how the forms can be easily obtained can also be found on this Web page. (Form 180 can be obtained from a Web site; all others can be requested by standard mail or E-mail by following instructions provided on the Web page.) ONLINE SEARCH FACILITIES: NARA has online search facilities at its site. Click on the 'Search' tab at the top of most screens at its Web site, or enter http://search.nara.gov in your Web browser program. Once you understand what a record group is, you may want to try a search of NARA's online catalog for records of interest to you. Here you can search both NARA's Web pages and their Web-based databases. Another online search facility is NAIL (the National Archival Information Locator), a prototype of the database ultimately intended to contain an index of all NARA's holdings. Some materials are there already, including text, maps, motion picture, sound and other materials. Some of these materials have been digitized and are available as part of the search results, serving as examples of what is available. As an example, starting to use NAIL at http://www.nara.gov/nara/searchnail.html, I used the NAIL Standard Search and entered the surname Abercrombie. The search results yielded some Selective Service System Registration Cards for several Abercrombies, some criminal defendant cases for people of this surname in the 1880s and 1890s, and some Dawes enrollment records for Native Americans from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes. (NOTE: There are representative records from many areas of NARA but certainly not everything from NARA is represented and indexed in NAIL.) NAIL also provides a search of microfilm publications. For example, I submitted a search for the words 'post' and 'office' in hopes of locating microfilm records of old post offices. Sure enough, using NAIL I located four rolls of NARA's microfilm publications that contain information concerning post offices. ASKING QUESTIONS VIA E-MAIL: Finally, if you have searched the extensive NARA Web site and checked the catalogs and still have questions, you can contact NARA electronically. Go to their Web page at http://www.nara.gov/nara/mail.html# inquire and read the instructions for sending e-mail to NARA. Make sure you use the correct E-mail address for the right topic. Please be patient. You will find that the people at NARA are responsive and helpful but they do have a lot of E-mail inquiries. SUMMARY: As you can see, NARA is a very big place with a tremendous volume of historical records about the United States and about its citizens. As family history researchers, I will admit that it can seem overwhelming and that it might be a challenge to locate specific records there. The key here, as in all other effective research, is in your advance preparation. Obtaining free pamphlets and purchasing publications about NARA's resources is an excellent starting point. Invest some time in becoming familiar with what types of records you might find at the various NARA ites. Spend an enjoyable hour or two exploring the NARA Web pages mentioned above and others you encounter along the way. Experiment with NARA's online search facilities. Determine (and order) the forms you need to request copies of records of your ancestors. And finally, ask those still unanswered questions via the E-mail query facility. The quantity and quality of the materials at NARA can be invaluable to your genealogical research. I hope you will invest the time to learn how to use their resources and achieve some new successes in your research there, whether by mail or by visiting the correct location to work with documents in person. Happy Hunting! George, Copyright 2000, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved. Col. 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