Why aren't all documents in the National Archives online?
The volume of materials -- paper-based, electronic, and sound and video recordings-- is huge. Laid end to end, the paper documents in the National Archives' holdings would circle the Earth over 57 times! More. . .
Research Tools and Ways to Search Online
What You Can Find Online
The National Archives web site has very few actual records online. Our web site's focus is on articles and information on how to conduct in-person research in the different types of records, along with finding aids, such as microfilm indexes.
This doesn't mean we have no interesting or valuable records available online. Here's a list of some of our online records that might help you with genealogy.
What If What I Need Is Not Online?
The National Archives has a very large amount of records that are useful for genealogy, but most of these records are not online.
- For ideas about how to use the National Archives for genealogy, please see:
Getting Started with Genealogy at the National Archives
What genealogical records are online?
Primarily this web site provides research tools, such as microfilm indexes and finding aids, articles and information on where to find the records and how to access them.
However, there are a few exceptions. Below are some of the records of genealogical interest that are available on the web site:
- Casualty lists for the Korean and Vietnam
Wars
- Selected Chinese exclusion lists
- Fugitive Slave Case Papers, 1850 - 1860 and Petitions Filed Under the Fugitive
Slave Act (Fugitive Slave Petition Book), 1850-1860, Search in ARC
- Fort Smith, Arkansas: 50,000 Criminal Case Files, Search in ARC
- Appointments and Oaths of U.S. Marshals and Deputy Marshals, 1864-1912, Search in ARC
- Alien Registration Affidavits from the U.S. District Court, Phoenix Division, Search in ARC
- Chinese Exclusion Act files, Search in ARC
- Sample Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War
Service, ca. 1800 - ca. 1900, Search in ARC
- Records of Death and Interment at Camp Nelson, KY, 1864-1865, Search in ARC
- Sample Case Files of Members, Battle Mountain Sanitarium, 1907-1934, Search in ARC
- Spanish-American War Compiled Military Service Records for 1,235 "Rough Riders", Search in ARC
- State Summaries of War Casualties for the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard
during World War II, 1946, Search in ARC
- World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel, 1946, Search in ARC
- Dawes Rolls Index and Final Rolls, Search in ARC
- Casualty lists for WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War, Search in AAD (Access to Archives Databases)
- Prisoner of War lists from WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War, Search in AAD
-
Passenger lists into the Port of
New York, 1846-1851, the "Famine Irish data files", Search in AAD
- Japanese-American Internee File, 1942 - 1946, Search in AAD
- Records of Duty Locations for Naval Intelligence Personnel, 1942 - 1945, Search in AAD
- Index to the Gorgas Hospital Mortuary Death Records, 1979 - 1991, Search in AAD
- Records of Awards and Decorations of Honor During the Vietnam Conflict, 10/1968 - 12/1972, Search in AAD
Note: The National Archives has a subscription to Footnote, Ancestry Library and Heritage Quest, which have digitized many of NARA's holdings with genealogical interest, and made them available online. There is unlimited access to these services, free-of-charge, from any NARA facility nationwide.
