Recently on NARAtions we heard from researchers who expressed concerns about the digitized records available on the web sites of NARA’s digitization partners.  We shared these concerns with NARA’s Access Programs office, NARA’s Digital Strategies and Services Staff, and with our digitization partners and we would like to respond to these concerns here on NARAtions. Since 2007 [...]

Most genealogists are familiar with the federal population census records and begin their research with these records.  But did you know that the Census Bureau also took a series of Nonpopulation Census records between 1850 and 1880?  They included mortality, agricultural, industrial, social statistics and defective, dependent, and delinquent schedules. These censuses cover the 12 [...]

The internet provides lots of great tools and services to help genealogists and historians understand the evolution of relationships and events over time. From teachers to big corporations, researchers at all levels can benefit from these innovative new tools, one of the most effective of which is the interactive map or timeline. One example of [...]

This week’s highlighted question comes from Dan in NARA’s Motion Pictures (NWCS-M) department. The unit has been looking for some time at new models for delivery of NARA’s film, video and audio holdings as it struggles with keeping the aging analog reference collection alive and well. Given limited resources, the problem requires a multi-faceted solution, [...]

Yesterday we asked a question on the blog about transcribing NARA’s handwritten records. Thanks to those of you who commented for the ideas and examples! We love the idea of crowdsourcing and have been thinking about how we could make it work for NARA. Projects like the one that Craig mentioned at the Australian National [...]

Transcribing billions of pages of handwritten documents is no easy task. Between the effects of time on paper and ink, the vagaries of individual handwriting, and history’s less-than-consistent spelling conventions, making sure historic records are intelligible (much less full-text searchable!) is easier said than done. What tools and processes do you suggest we use to [...]

Digitized and indexed marriage records from the Virginia Field Office of the Freedmen’s Bureau are available online via FamilySearch. FamilySearch digitized the microfilm and, in collaboration with the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, coordinated volunteers who indexed the materials. The Virginia records are part of the pilot phase of the project to [...]