The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is responsible for preserving important government records and making them accessible to the public. NARA's website, Archives.gov, contains many genealogical records like census, military, immigration, and naturalization records. For beginning genealogists, NARA recommends starting with census records which are accessible on Archives.gov and can be searched by year from 1790-1940. The site also contains tutorials, FAQs, forms and charts to help genealogists in their research.

1. Beginning Genealogy
At the National Archives and Records Administration

2. The National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA)?
The official agency of the United States government
responsible for:
 preserving government and historical records that are
deemed important enough to warrant permanent storage
 enabling public access to those documents

3. NARA ONLINE
 Located at www.archives.gov
 Note: This is an open-access website,
available on the internet. It is NOT a library
database.

4. What records are found at Archives.gov?
There are many records and documents found at
Archives.gov, but only some of them are of interest to novice
genealogists. These include:
 Census records
 Military records
 Immigration records
 Naturalization records

5. Where to begin
 NARA has a section just for genealogists. The link
is on the bottom of the home page, on the left.
Clicking on this link takes you to this page:

6. Links to the most commonly used
genealogical records

7. Click on any link to search that record
set. For example, census records:

8. Learn about individual record sets, order
copies, ask a question from these pages.

9. Choose census records from 1790-1940

10. Clicking on a census year brings up
options for accessing those records

11. Options for accessing records found on
Archives.org
 Familysearch.org – free, but must create an account
 Fold3.com – subscription, but free from NARA computers
 Ancestry.com – subscription, but free from NARA computers
Ancestry.com is also available at no cost in the library. Go to
anylib.org, click on “Resources” tab, click on “Databases” tab.
Find Ancestry.com in the alphabetical list. It may only be accessed
from the library.

12. Other resources at Archives.gov
NARA has many other resources for the beginning
genealogist, including:
 Genealogy Tutorial
 Genealogy FAQ
 Charts and Forms

13. Click on any link to access other
resources available at Archives.gov

14. For further information
For any questions or to set up a one-on-one tutorial, contact
the reference desk at:
Anylib
1234 Main Street
Anytown, IL 60199
630-483-0000
ref@anylib.org