NARA’s annual Genealogy Series features staff experts speaking about records in National Archives custody. The 2024 series begins on May 21. This year’s line up includes:
Passport Records: Passport Applications at NARA, 1790s-1925 – May 21, 1 p.m. ET
After Their Service: Tracing the Lives of Native American Army Scouts – May 28, 1 p.m. ET
Captured German Records Related to American Prisoners of War During World War II – June 4, 1 p.m. ET
Alien Files (A-Files): Researching Immigrant Ancestors at the National Archives – June 18, 1 p.m. ET
World War II Enemy Alien Records Related to Japanese Americans at the National Archives – June 25, 1 p.m. ET
Don’t worry about missing the program! After their premiere, these videos will remain online on YouTube for future viewing.
NARA has reintroduced a user-friendly “What’s New in the National Archives Catalog” page at https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/whats-new. This webpage may highlight visually interesting items along with a list of:
Recent bulk uploads of descriptions of records
Recent bulk uploads of descriptions with images of records
Recent uploads of images to previously existing descriptions
The list shows the part of the NARA that holds the records and gives a direct link to where the records are in the Catalog. As should be expected, digital images of very large record series will usually be uploaded in increments over time (months or years), as digitization is accomplished. Digital images of very small series are normally uploaded all at once, such as the single volume series, List of Special Agents Who Collected Cotton Statistics, 1900 (National Archives Identifier 3318884).
What will you find that’s new and interesting to you?
Censuses “in-between” federal census years are always a bonus! Changes in families and neighborhoods can be more closely tracked. Missed or miss-enumerated families might be located.
NARA recently completed the digitization of a small series of off-year censuses called “Schedules of Municipal Population Enumerations, 1932-1938” (National Archives Identifier 2791185) that includes towns in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. These are the only municipal censuses conducted by the Census Bureau that are in NARA custody.
Titles given to archival record series (specific bodies of records that serve a particular function) usually have dull but clear names like
Letters Sent ….
Letters Received ….
Correspondence of ….
Claims Filed by ….
Reports ….
Accounts of ….
Record series titles normally don’t refer to the location in which the records had been stored. For example, one would not expect records to be titled “Records from the 15th Filing Cabinet” since that would not meaningfully describe their informational content. Recently, however, I discovered that there is at least one record series named after their former storage place. It is “Materials from the Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon’s Trunk, 1903-1909” (National Archives Identifier 5987062) which is part of Record Group 233, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Speaker Cannon was a powerful Speaker of the House and anyone doing research on Congress in the early 20th century should know who he was. And yes, you can see what his trunk looks like at “Trunk Used by Speaker Joseph Cannon” (National Archives Identifier 25465646).
On Monday, September 11, 2023, the National Archives and National Archives Foundation held a swearing-in ceremony for the 11th Archivist of the United States (AOTUS), Dr. Colleen Shogan. The ceremony was presided over by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden gave keynote remarks.
First Lady Jill Biden spoke about the vast holdings of the National Archives and how they reflect us as a nation—“imperfectly marching toward a more perfect union.” As an educator, Dr. Biden also invoked the unofficial motto of the National Archives, what’s past is prologue, to affirm the importance of the institution’s role in learning our shared history.
Dr. Shogan took her oath, administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., In an acknowledgment of the historic moment, she took the podium dressed in a white pantsuit, an homage to the suffragists who blazed the path for her and other women to not only participate in government, but also to lead it.
The archivist’s remarks laid out a bold future for the agency tasked with protecting and sharing our past. Prioritizing accountability, adopting new technology, and embracing creative outreach strategies were the main points of Dr. Shogan’s vision for the agency.
The map below, courtesy of Australia’s Digital Classroom, shows the European boundaries of the Central Powers whose citizens were considered enemy aliens.
Search Tips: When searching the Enemy Alien Index in NARA’s Catalog, keep in mind that the first name of some aliens are abbreviated, such as “Chas.” for Charles or “Robt.” for Robert. Therefore, if searching by first and last name yields no results, search by surname only, or even by first name only for unusual first names. Also consider searching by alternate spellings of a surname if you get no results. In addition, some women are listed by their husband’s name, such as Mrs. Theodore Zeigler (NAID 296756836). You can also browse through an entire file unit (there are 23 file units), but be sure to set the “Sort by” order to either “Title (Alphabetically, A-Z)” or “Title (Alphabetically, Z-A)” instead of “Most Relevant.”
The presentations will be pre-recorded but the speakers will answer questions in the chat for 10 minutes at the end of the premiere. The videos will remain online on YouTube afterwards. Links to the videos and associated handouts are at NARA’s 2023 National Archives Genealogy Series.
The Twelve Key 