Most people who research information about relatives or ancestors who were Federal employees probably don't make enough use of government publications. So, it might interest you to know that the Federal Government actually produced its own employee directory, the Official Register of the United States, which spans the early 19th to the mid-20th centuries (1817-1959). … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Using the Official Register to find Federal employees
The following post comes from Stuart Culy of the Policy and Planning Staff We want your comments, again! Last December, the National Archives started looking at changing the way we let the public know about new and changing record reproduction fees. As a result of public comments and staff deliberations, we’ve drafted a proposed rule … Continue reading Regulation Nation
At the NAGARA plenary address in Nashville a few weeks ago, I was asked to talk about NARA’s new Applied Research Division, which wandered into an explanation about why we haven’t been ERA Research for the past two years. Folks were encouraged to attend my 1940 Census session, featuring NARA research partners who are using cool smart tools to make sense out of scanned images—there was not an empty chair in the room, leading to fruitful discussions and promising collaborations…and that’s what you missed at NAGARA! Read the full story here...
Do you have the opening of the 1940 Census on April 2, 2012 marked on your calendar? We do here at the National Archives. For past Census releases we provided access to the Census on microfilm. For the 1940 Census we will be providing free online access. You’ll be able to search on the internet using … Continue reading Are You Preparing for the 1940 Census? We are!
The National Archives at College Park (Archives II) will be closed for research on Saturday, July 30th due to building construction. The Archives II Research Rooms will reopen on Monday, August 1st at 9:00 AM. Thank you for your understanding while we undertake this work.
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?
In Digitization Services, we’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about quality. What does it mean? How do we measure it? And why should we care about it? After the establishment of the Products and Services (P&S) web portal resource in 2010 (see the http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=5320 blog post), Digitization Services knew we still had more … Continue reading Results Should Not Vary: Pursuing Quality in Digitization Services
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)
