The National Archives celebrates 75 years of YOUR discoveries and generations of National Archives staff members and volunteers who helped to reveal them!

Discoveries both large and small are made each day in National Archives research rooms and exhibit halls from coast to coast. Some discoveries capture our imagination of another time and place in our nation’s history; other documentary records directly tie us to the events of history along the branch of a family tree. A few of these treasures shine a light on the past for a fleeting few moments leaving an impression on our consciousness, an awareness that wasn’t there before. Other rare finds leave a fingerprint on our hearts.

Has a record preserved at the National Archives made such an impression on you? Please tell us about it! Submit Your Story!

It can be any record from the Declaration of Independence, to your great-grandfather’s naturalization papers, or a captured German military record from World War II as staff archivist Tim Mulligan recounts here.

Attention National Archives staff past and present… you, too, are invited to share your stories. Tell us about a favorite document, a surprising find, and rewarding relationships with colleagues, volunteers, researchers and visitors.

Visit our Personal Stories page to read story submissions about how the National Archives has made a difference in peoples' lives.

Read our Featured Story about a newborn baby girl and her father serving as Captain of an ill-fated German U-boat in 1943. Was news of his daughter’s arrival transmitted in time?