In a previous blog post, my colleague Katherine talked about vital statistics that sometimes show up in federal records. I thought it might be worthwhile to point out that, under specific circumstances, vital records were also intentionally created by the government, particularly the U.S. military. In our vast collection of records relating to 19th-century military forts--all … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Vital Statistics in Military Records
New researchers are always asking us how to start tracing their family tree. We have so many records that it’s very easy to become overwhelmed when you are beginning your research. We usually tell people to gather as much information about their family as possible, and to ask themselves how their ancestors interacted with the … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Getting Started With Census Records
If you had the opportunity to attend NARA's 6th Annual Genealogy Fair last month, visitors were treated to a variety of lectures on the theme of "The World of Genealogy." The theme highlighted the ethnic diversity that is documented in specific federal records, whether they are newspapers published by Japanese-Americans through the War Relocation Authority during … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Navigating federal records about ethnic groups–come prepared!
My last few posts have explored the compiled military service records (CMSRs) at the National Archives, highlighting in particular the extra information found in the records, especially the personal papers relating to individual soldiers such as enlistment and discharge forms, casualty sheets, or final statements of service. One last point to make is that personal … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: The last word on CMSR personal papers.
Most researchers know that they need to contact the appropriate state or county to get birth certificates or other vital records. Because these are not federal records, they are not in NARA’s holdings. So why can you sometimes find copies of official state-issued vital statistics in our records? Think about it – when you contact … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Vital Statistics in Federal Records
In my last blog post I explained how to decipher the information contained on a volunteer soldier's compiled military service record envelope or "jacket." Those jackets also indicate whether or not the service record includes any personal papers. Personal papers are individual documents such as an original enlistment paper, a casualty sheet, discharge certificate, or … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Personal papers in compiled service records reveal important clues.
We’ve already looked at the Mortality Schedules and the Agricultural Schedules. Both provide information about individuals, and can be useful when doing genealogical research. But did you know that there are also some Nonpopulation schedules that provide information on a county or town level? They are called Social Statistics Schedules, and they were taken between … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Nonpopulation Census Records – Social Statistics
Compiled military service records at the National Archives for the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) through the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902) are filed in separate envelopes or jackets that contain basic information about the soldier. The example shown here for my ancestor Adam Dale (his surname is actually DEAL, which shows how spelling mistakes/variations can find their way … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: How to decipher compiled service record jackets.
If you’ve been watching the new NBC show, Who Do You Think You Are?, you may have seen a recent episode where slavery in America was discussed. Researchers with slave ancestors often have trouble because there just aren’t a lot of federal records which list slaves by name. One type of federal record that researchers … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Slave Schedules
The National Archives in the DC area has a lot of public programs. One of our most successful ventures is our Know Your Records lecture series. We present weekly lectures, both at the National Archives Building and the National Archives in College Park, on a wide variety of research topics. A year and a half … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Genealogy Programs at the National Archives Building
