Archives In The United States

Archives and libraries house records of genealogical value. In the United States, there are archives at the county, state, and national levels.

Amazing
DNA Sale

Research your ancestors on MyHeritage

Search

National archives and records administration (NARA)

Natiional Archives of the United States.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is located in Washington, DC, and has branches in several states throughout the U.S.

The main branch has nationwide censuses, pre-WWI military service and pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.

The College Park, Maryland branch has documents created after 1900 at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, modern military records, and passport applications.

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It houses records of military personnel records for servicemen and servicewomen discharged from 1912 to 1952, including WWI and WWII.

NARA houses textual and microfilm records, some of which have been digitized and are viewable online. Their website is https://www.archives.gov/.

Search historical records on MyHeritage

Allen county public library (ACPL)

The Allen County Public Library (ACPL) is in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It houses the second-largest genealogy research collection in the U.S.

The ACPL holds over 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items on microfilm and microfiche. Its holdings include over 50,000 family histories and nearly 200,000 local histories. It holds guidebooks, methodology works, heraldry titles, and similar items of general focus for other countries. The collection primarily contains North American records and also contains some resources for the British Isles and other European countries.

ACPL creates the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), a subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals from all over the United States and Canada, including French Canadian journals. PERSI is created from the Center's premier collection of over 5,100 current genealogy periodical subscriptions, and runs of numerous ceased serial titles.

The APCL provides reference services for on-site patrons, educational programming via lectures and workshops, tours, and Research Center services for patrons who can’t come in person.

Their website is https://www.acpl.lib.in.us/.

Library of Congress

Main reading room of the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is located in Washington, DC. It is the largest library in the U.S. The local history and genealogy reading room has 50,000 genealogies and 100,000 local histories. Its collections are rich in manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, published material, bibliographies, and research guides. It contains North American, British Isles, and German sources. Its website is https://www.loc.gov/.

Its online database, Chronicling America, contains digital newspapers from all over the U.S. from 1756 to 1963.

National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Library

The DAR Library houses one of the largest genealogical collections in the United States. Its book collection includes over 150,000 volumes concerning people and places throughout the nation. The collection focuses primarily on the generation of the American Revolution but also includes substantial resources for studying people from the colonial period and the nineteenth century.

Their website is https://www.dar.org/. American Revolution ancestors can be searched in the Ancestor Search.

MyHeritage has the collection Directory of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1911.

National Society of the Sons of the american revolution (SAR) genealogical research library

The SAR is an organization of men who can prove direct lineal descent from patriots who supported the cause of American independence. Its genealogical research library houses over 55,000 items, including family histories, and local, county, and state records - with a collection focus that spans all 50 states and the breadth of American history. It also provides access to SAR special collections.

Their library website is https://library.sar.org/library/visiting-the-library/. Revolutionary War ancestors can be searched in their Patriot Research System.

Mid-continent public library midwest genealogy center (MCPL)

The Mid-Continent Public Library (MCPL) is located in Independence, Missouri. Its holdings include all federal censuses 1790-1930 and many indexes, federal land sales in Missouri 1818-1903, the Draper Manuscript Collection, Kentucky tax records, Missouri State Penitentiary Records 1836-1931, papers of the St. Louis fur trade, Records of Antebellum Southern Plantations, indexes and Compiled Service Records of MO Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers, Civil War Union and Confederate unit histories, selected passenger arrival lists, Native American sources, partial state vital records for AL, AR, CA, GA, IL, IN, KY, OR, TX, WA, Massachusetts original town records, city directories, the Independence Examiner, and Kansas City Star and Times, other newspapers (primarily Missouri), American Biographical Archives, Black Biographical Dictionaries, UMI Genealogy and Local History Series, and the United States Serial Set.

The Midwest Genealogy Center is a branch of the MCPL. It has collections that cover the entire United States including over 80,000 family history books, 100,000 local history items, 565,000 microfilms and microfiches, and 7,000 maps. The center also has an extensive newspaper clipping file and thousands of family name files.

Its website is https://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy.

New England historic genealogical society (NEHGS)

The New England Historic Genealogical Society

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is located in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest genealogical society in the U.S. It maintains an Internet database of over 100 million names, including vital records, compiled genealogies, and scholarly journals. They have over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and other sources. Their manuscript collection has over 20 million items with an emphasis on New England since the 1600s. The Society holds educational research tours, lectures, seminars, and other events.

Its website is https://www.americanancestors.org/.

New York public library

Of interest to genealogists are the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy, and the Milstein Microforms Reading Room. The collections contain American history, international genealogy and heraldry, photos, New York censuses, directories, vital records, coroner's inquisitions 1823-1898, divorce index 1784-1910, 1890 New York City “Police” Census, New York City historical newspapers, NYC land and property records 1654-1857, 18th and 19th-century wills for many counties.

Its website is https://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/milstein.

Newberry library

This library is located in Chicago, Illinois. Its genealogy collections contain 17,000 published genealogies of New England, colonial America; and British gentry and nobility. It collects church, town, county, and state histories from all parts of the U.S., Canada, and the British Isles.

Its website is https://www.newberry.org/.

Ackman & Ziff family genealogy Institute

This provides access to the genealogical resources of the Center for Jewish History’s partner collections, which comprise the world’s most comprehensive Jewish collection outside Israel. This includes family and community histories, Landsmanshaftn collections, newsletters of Jewish genealogical societies, memoirs, Jewish Data (database), historic newspapers (including New York Times and Washington Post), American Jewish Newspapers, Pinkas Hakehillot and other Holocaust reference works, photographs, personal, communal, cultural, political and professional organization records.

Its website is https://www.cjh.org/.

See also

• United States
• U.S. State Archives
• How to research in an archive
• How to find overseas US ancestors using US records
• Manuscript collections

Explore more about archives in the United States

• MyHeritage: Your Personal Genealogy Archive webinar on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
• Thomas Nelson, Jr. record collection at MyHeritage.
• Researching Family History at Your Library with MyHeritage Library Edition webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• Navigating the NARA Website webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• A Genealogical Gem in DC: The DAR Library webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• Resources at the Library of Congress webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• Jacques Jerauld in project dashboard on Geni.
• Researching in Libraries and Archives: the Do’s and Don’ts webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• It's Not All Online: Researching in Archives webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• NEHGS: Who We Are, What We Do, and How We Can Help webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars

References

Authors template (click twice to edit)