A national ‘gold mine’
By Nancy Battick
The National Archives and Records Administration was established in 1934 with the mission to preserve federal records vital to our nation’s history. Most of its holdings are open to researchers.
The administration’s headquarters is in Washington, D.C., and there are regional archives, records centers, affiliated archives and presidential libraries that are all under its umbrella.
How does NARA help genealogists? The U.S. censuses are under its authority. Other useful data includes passenger ship lists, naturalization records, homestead files, and military service and pension files. While the administration doesn’t hold vital records, you can find some vital record information in military pension applications, draft records, passenger ship lists, and naturalization records.
The National Archives has a website at www.archives.gov. While there are searchable records on the website, most of the holdings of NARA have not been digitized and you’ll need to make a visit in person. When you visit the website, look for the link to “research our records.” This will lead you to their online catalog and research tools. It will also offer tips and a link for genealogists.
When you follow that link, you’ll find help in starting genealogy research, resources, free databases, and then links to the U.S. census, military service records and others that may be of help in your researching. It also offers tools for genealogists, a listing of events including workshops, how to order copies of records held at NARA, as well as a host of other material of interest to genealogists.
NARA also has digitization partners who offer access to certain material, such as the U.S. census, military pension applications and naturalization records. These partners are well known to genealogists: Ancestry.com, Fold3, and FamilySearch.org. The first two charge a subscription fee, though some material is searchable for free, and you can access them in many libraries. FamilySearch.org is a free site that only requires you to register with them.
There’s a special section on the NARA website for microfilm publications and original records digitized by these partners. There’s a listing of the material digitized and it’s a varied field. The first page (there are more than 2,600 items in this list) ranges from passenger lists of vessels arriving at Pascagoula, Mississippi, 1903-1935, to Alien and Chinese Crew Lists of Vessels arriving at Charleston, South Carolina, 1907-1913. These and so many more are available at Ancestry.com while others are available on other sites.
You can sign up on NARA’s website for notices of new databases, and the information will come to your inbox. The administration also has a YouTube Channel. On its website you can take a virtual tour of its latest exhibits, and you can even sign up to do transcriptions of documents that will eventually appear online. Volunteer transcribers will be given training and help other researchers who can’t travel.
The closest NARA regional facility to Maine is in Waltham, Massachusetts (www.archives.gov/boston). If you’re thinking of visiting, have all your research ducks in a row, check the online catalog, and read up on researching before you go.
Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft. Nancy holds an MA in History from UM. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com.