National Archives search may yield an ancestral gem

First of three parts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- One of the most thrilling aspects of visiting the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., is the opportunity to actually handle original documents.

Imagine touching the paperwork that details your ancestor's role in the Revolutionary War or papers that brought a desperately needed pension to the widow of a Civil War soldier.

Such precious items are among the 6-billion records that reflect the country's history and attract 1-million visitors annually to the stately building on Pennsylvania Avenue, according to Sam Anthony, director of the agency's lecture programs.

Established in 1934, NARA is the federal agency that determines which records will be preserved and made accessible to the public. The National Archives hangs on to less than 5 percent of records generated annually. These include billions of pages of text, almost 14-million pictures and posters including Civil War photographs, 300,000 reels of motion picture film dating to President McKinley's inauguration in 1897, documentaries, maps and charts.

Naturally, rooters are most interested in federal census schedules, military service and pension records, bounty land warrants and other land records and the smattering of passenger ship lists, naturalization records and passport applications that the National Archives maintains.

Freedman's bureau records and marriage registers, tribal enrollment records, Japanese internment records and research related to the Holocaust are among NARA documents pertaining to various ethnic groups.

(For free publications on NARA holdings, call toll-free 1-866-325-7208.)

The National Archives serves as a repository for federal records. That means documents date back to the Continental Congress and the country's formation but do not include earlier colonial records. No state and county records like birth and death certificates, either. No wills or divorce papers.

"Basically we have federal textual records spanning from the Revolutionary War to the Spanish American War," Anthony said.

More recent memorabilia like the Kennedy assassination papers and items requiring special preservation conditions, like movies and electronic records, are kept at the agency's College Park, Md., facility. That facility has few genealogical records.

The National Archives in Washington is undergoing a major overhaul. Contrary to what some Washington, D.C., guidebooks claim, the archives are not closed to the public during the renovation. Only the rotunda, which houses the Charters of Freedom -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- is off-limits.

Researchers have complete access to records. When completed, the multiyear refurbishment will feature new encasements for the nation's founding documents, an interactive experience, more meeting rooms and infrastructure improvements such as better air conditioning. Work should be completed by the end of next year.

When I visited, a researcher was browsing naval logs in the National Archives' library. As I glanced at a collection of Roll of Honor Books, Anthony explained how secondary sources such as this one and adjutant general reports could help genealogists searching for military records.

If you're trying to find out if your ancestor fought in the Civil War and you've reached a dead end with primary sources, you can use the adjutant's report or the Roll of Honor books to find him and then go back and check the primary sources, Anthony said.

An adjutant's report, compiled for each state, lists each soldier who served. The U.S. Quartermaster's Roll of Honor Books give the gravesite and regiment number of each veteran.

The National Archives is open from 8:45 a.m to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and from 8:45 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Saturdays.

For more information, log on to the agency's web site at www.archives.gov/research_room/gene

Next week: Using the National Archives.

-- Donna Murray Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. No phone calls, but you can write to her c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@yahoo.com. You can read her online at www.sptimes.com. Type "Donna Murray Allen" in the search box.

Did you know?

Ground recently was broken for a National Archives and Records Administration's southeast regional facility, next to the Clayton College and State University in Morrow, Ga. The 114,600-square-foot repository will be one of the National Archives' largest when it opens in 2004. It will replace the facility in East Point, Ga.

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