Genealogical Resources Available to You
Please visit the Friends of the Silvio O. Conte National Archives web site
The most widely used microfilm and original records for family history research are listed below. Click on a title to read more about any particular type of record.
Also Visit:
Various New England Genealogical Groups' Web Sites
Census Records
Microfilm copies of the existing Federal population census schedules, taken every ten years, for all states and territories 1790-1930 (nearly all of the 1890 schedules were destroyed by fire in 1921).
Soundex Indexes
- 1880, 1900, and 1920
- Partial Soundex indexes to the 1910 and 1930
An explanation of Soundex has been created by NARA's Office of Records Services - Washington, DC (NW). It is published at the link below:
Published indexes for all years and all states
- Print sources
- Online databases
- CD-ROM
Other census schedules
- Non-population census schedules for
- Alaska (agricultural 1929)
- Illinois (1850-1880)
- Iowa (1850-1880)
- Kansas (1850-1880)
- Massachusetts (1850-1880)
- Michigan (1850-1880)
- Nebraska (1860-1880)
- New Jersey (1850-1880)
- Ohio (1850-1880)
- Pennsylvania (1850-1880)
- Puerto Rico (agricultural 1930)
- Texas (1850-1880 mortality only)
- Virgin Islands (agricultural 1917 and 1930)
- Utah (1870)
- Vermont 1850-1870
- Virginia (1850-1880)
- Special census of Union veterans and widows of veterans 1890
- Territorial census schedules for Kansas (1855-1859) and Wisconsin (1836-1847)
- Canadian census schedules (1891 only)
Naturalization Records
Records of immigrants living in New England who applied for American citizenship through the courts.
Now you can order copies of naturalization records
online
Petitions on Microfilm
- M1368 - Naturalization Records, U.S District and Circuit Courts, MA 1906-1929
Indexes on Microfilm
- M1299 - Soundex Index to New England Naturalization Records, 1790-1906 (Connecticut 1790-1939) ()
- M1545 - Index to Naturalization Records, U.S District Court 1906-1966 and U. S. Circuit Court 1906-1911, MA
- M1164 - Index to Naturalization Petitions of the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of NY (1865-1957)
- M1676 - Alphabetical Index to Naturalization Petitions of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of NY (1824-1941)
- M1677 - Alphabetical Index to Naturalization Petitions of the U. S. District Court for the Western District of NY (1906-1966)
- M1248 - Index to Naturalization Petitions of the U. S. Circuit and District Courts for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1795-1951)
- M1208 - Index to Registers and Registers of Declarations of Intention and Petitions for Naturalization of the U. S. District and Circuit Courts for the Western District of Pennsylvania (1820-1906)
Passenger Arrival Lists
Microfilm copies of the lists for the ports of:
- Baltimore (1820-1905), index to 1952
- Boston (1820-1943)
- Galveston, TX (1896-1951 index only)
- Gloucester, MA (1906-1942)
- New Bedford, MA (1826-1852; 1902-1954)
- New Orleans (1820-1902)
- New York (1820-1957)
- Philadelphia (1800-1906)
- Portland, ME (1820-1868; 1893-1943)
- Providence, RI (1820-1867; 1911-1943)
- Miscellaneous Atlantic and Gulf Ports (1820-1874)
- Other small Atlantic and Great Lakes ports, various dates
- Canadian Border Entry Records (1895-ca. 1954)
At least partial indexes exist for most of the above lists.
Please also refer to Boston passenger lists held by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Military Records
Links to Other Locations
Military personnel records, including medical records, may be found at these NARA locations:
National Military Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO
- Personnel Records, World War I and later
- Awards and Decorations
- Medical Records
- More ...
Old Military and Civil Records Branch, Washington, DC
- Personnel Records, pre-World War I
- More ...
Now you can order copies of WWI Draft Registration Cards online
Microfilm copies of the applications for pension and bounty land warrants issued to veterans of the Revolutionary War and military service records of those who served in the war. These records cover all states and include name indexes.
Microfilm copies of War of 1812 Military Bounty Land Warrants; an index to compiled service records of volunteer soldiers who served in the War of 1812; the pension index for veterans of the War of 1812, the "Old Wars", Mexican War, and Indian Wars, as well as a general index to pension applications, submitted between 1861 and 1934, for military service performed up to 1916. These records cover all states.
Microfilm copies of abstracts of service records of naval officers for the period 1798-1893 and indexes to compiled service records of volunteer Union soldiers who served in organizations from each New England state and Pennsylvania. Registers of Enlistment in the Regular Army, 1789-1914..
Microfilm copies of World War I draft registration cards for each New England state, New York, as well as men in institutions and late registrants from all states.
Freedmen's Bureau and Records Related to African American Families
Microfilm copies of records of the Assistant Commissioners of the Freedmen's Bureau in the Southern states as well as the registers of Depositors in the branches of the Freedmen's Savings and Trust Co., 1865-1878 (with index), and the District of Columbia Emancipation records of the Act of 1862.
These records often provide considerable information regarding African American family relations, marriages, births, deaths, occupations, and places of residence.
Materials in the files may include:
- Names of slave owners
- Information concerning black military service
- Plantation conditions
- Manumission
- Property ownership
- Migration
Additional records include the Compiled Military Service Records of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiments.
Native American Records
Microfilm copies of the Final Cards of the Five Civilized Tribes as well as indexes to the Eastern Cherokee Applications.
An act of Congress approved in 1893 established a commission to negotiate agreements with the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Cherokee Indian tribes. As part of a process to divide tribal land into plots to be divided among the members of the tribe, the Dawes Commission either accepted or rejected applicants for tribal membership based on whether the tribal government had previously recognized the applicant as a member of the tribe and other legal requirements.
Applicants were categorized as Citizens by Blood, Citizens by Marriage, Minor Citizens by Blood, New Born Citizens by Blood, Freedmen (African Americans formerly enslaved by tribal members), New Born Freedmen, and Minor Freedmen. The Final Cards include both approved and rejected names. Most rolls give the name, age, sex, degree of Indian blood, and roll and census card number of each person.
The application for tribal membership required each claimant to state full English and Indian names, residence, age, place of birth, name of husband or wife, name of tribe, and names of children. It also required information on the claimant's parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts. The index to the applications is arranged alphabetically by name (either English or Indian) of claimant. Files are numerical by application number.
National Archives and Records Administration, Pittsfield also holds records relating to the Enrollment of Eastern Cherokee by Guion Miller, 1908-1910, including his reports and supplemental reports as well as the roll. Copies of the Chapman, Drennen and Old Settler rolls of 1851 and the Hester roll of 1884, with appropriate indexes, are on the last roll of M685. Data on these rolls vary but usually give:
- English and/or Indian name of person
- Roll number
- Age or date of birth
- Gender
- Relationship to head of family
Pittsfield also holds 45 rolls from M595, Indian Census Rolls. Only persons who maintained a formal affiliation with a tribe under Federal supervision are listed on these rolls. Not all of the census films are available in Pittsfield, only those relating to eastern tribes, for example Keshena, Oneida, Quapaw, Peoria, Seneca, Ottawa, Stockbridge-Munsee, and Wyandot. The rolls begin in 1885 with various years available up to 1940, depending on the tribe.
Visit Various New England Genealogical Groups' Web Sites
- Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society
- Friends of the Silvio O. Conte National Archives
- Italian Genealogical Society of America
- Jewish Genealogy
- New England Historic Genealogical Society
- New England Regional Genealogical Conference
- Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts
- The Irish Ancestral Research Association
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