Start Your Genealogy Research
We have arranged the Genealogy section of the website by research topics, or types of records available to search.
From the Research Topics pages, you will find links to pages throughout the web site with articles, finding aids, and other helpful information to help you prepare for your genealogical research at the National Archives.
The records in our holdings that are most commonly used by genealogists include:
- Census Records
- Military Records
- Immigration Records (Ship Passenger Lists)
- Naturalization Records
- Land Records
While you will not find the actual records online, you will find finding aids online, such as microfilm indexes, and information on how to conduct research in the different types of records.
For an introduction to the Genealogy section of our web site, you may first want to review the Genealogical Resources at the National Archives page, and About Genealogy and Family History Research.
What genealogical records are online?
The NARA web site has very few actual records 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 Ancestry 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.
