We're just over halfway through this summer's "I Found it in the National Archives" contest and have enjoyed reading the stories that have come in so far! From Rebecca Lawrence-Weden's tale of a lighthouse, a walnut and the Great War to Wendy Griswold's experience shedding some light on a 106-year-old family tragedy, the determination and … Continue reading Tell us your stories!
When you consider the vast holdings of federal records at the National Archives, what usually jumps to mind are such mainstay documents as Civil War pensions and service records, immigration passenger manifests, Congressional petitions and memorials, or homestead applications. Certainly, the Charters of Freedom—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—figure prominently … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Finding religion in Federal records…from 1926!
NARA is in the very early stages of developing a process for electronically requesting records (i.e., an online pull slip). We are currently concentrating on requirements. We invite you to attend one or both of two meetings to discuss what requirements and features you'd like to see for doing records requests electronically. Project director Rich Tomlinson will brief … Continue reading Do you dream about filling out your records pull slips online?
This week's post comes to you from guest blogger Jennifer Dryer, who works in the National Declassification Center at the National Archives. Jennifer is completing a cross-training assignment with the Archives I Research Support Branch, where she has been working on reference relating to the upcoming 1940 Census release. Some questions on the 1940 census … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: The National Youth Administration (1935-1943)
Today's post is brought to you by Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, Archivist in the Archives I Research Support Branch. June 18, 2011 marks the 199th anniversary of the beginning of the War of 1812. On June 18, 1812, in Washington, DC, the U.S. Congress declared war against Great Britain. On about the same date, nearly 3,400 miles … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: War of 1812 Passenger List
As a way to tie together all the Confederate prisoner of war records that we've discussed over the last several weeks, I thought you might want to know about a specific record the War Department compiled in the early 20th century to document all of the Confederate POWs who died in Federal custody during the … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Confederate POW Deaths & Burials Online
When you signed up as a researcher at the National Archives, what did our staff pull out of the stacks for you? Was it a photo of your great-grandfather with the Secretary of War as he received a commendation? Or did you find a telegraph your favorite president sent at the height of his career? … Continue reading I Found It in the National Archives! Contest
Since I introduced a lot of information about Confederate prisoners of war in my last blog post, it seemed appropriate to mention what material we also have available relating to Union POWs held in Confederate military prisons. As you may imagine, records about Confederate prison camps are not nearly as complete as those for Union … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Confederate records about Union POWs
Today's post is brought to you by Constance Potter, Archivist in the Archives I Research Support Branch, and Jennifer Dryer of Archives II, who is currently cross-training at Archives I. The release of the 1940 population census schedules is approaching! It will be released digitally on April 2, 2012. You will be able to access … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: 1940 Census opens next April
If you are anything like me, you would love to volunteer more, but you don't feel you have enough time to make a commitment. Luckily, these days, anyone with a computer and internet access can easily participate in online volunteer projects. An upcoming public program at the National Archives will look at three projects where … Continue reading May 18th Citizen Archivist Program
