The National Archives’ new search interface is now available! Check out Online Public Access at www.archives.gov/research/search! The National Archives’ flagship initiative in our Open Government plan is to develop online services to meet the 21st century needs of the public. Toward that end we have revamped our website, including taking a new look at how [...]

Today I want to talk about a type of Post Office Department record that most people probably haven’t considered – Letters Sent by the Postmaster General, 1789-1836. As the series title implies, these are letters that were sent by the Postmaster General. They deal with a lot of different types of activity – the establishment [...]

The following post is by guest blogger Corey Stewart of the Archival Programs Division at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.  Thanks Corey! Photograph, Capt. Henry T. Elrod, February 1, 1940 Just hours after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese launched an attack on Wake Island, December 8, 1941.  The initial enemy bombing runs [...]

Last time I talked about the records of appointment of postmasters. This time, I want to talk about a different type of post office record – one that doesn’t provide a lot of family history information, but can provide a great deal of information about the community. Reports of Site Locations provide, as the series [...]

Good news for DC-area NARA users- as of today, wireless internet is available to registered researchers at A1 and A2! This means that researchers with laptops and other WiFi-enabled devices will be able to access the online catalog, Ancestry.com, Footnote.com and other great sites via the free wireless connection in public areas of the Archives [...]

Today’s post comes from guest blogger Stephanie Greenhut, Education Technology Specialist with the Center for the National Archives Experience. We know! And we were happy to hear that NARA’s new DocsTeach.org prompted this tweet on October 4. It was part of the almost-immediate-feedback we received after launching the site. Additional blogs, tweets, social bookmarks, social [...]

I know I promised to post Part 2 about Emigration Records at the National Archives at Philadelphia as the next NARA Coast to Coast post, but I’ve gotten a bit stuck in my research and other work has gotten in the way.  (Has that ever happened to you before?)  I am definitely going to persevere [...]

Last time I talked about the 1798 Direct Tax. This time, I want to talk about tax assessments during the Civil War. With the passage of the Internal Revenue Act on July 1, 1862 (12 Stat. 432), Congress authorized the collection of monthly and annual taxes on goods and services, licenses, income, and personal property. [...]

There have been numerous posts on the NARAtions blog about people who have immigrated to the United States and how to locate their records, but what if you have ancestors who emigrated from the United States? In this two part series, we’ll look at two unique series of records from the National Archives at Philadelphia [...]

The National Archives introduces an exciting new way to use our historic photograph collections!  History Happens Here! augments reality and combines the old with the new in the same frame, giving the viewer a unique perspective on how our country has evolved over time. For those of us who are familiar with the latest in [...]