Digitization at the National Archives (NARA)

The National Archives (NARA) in Washington, D.C. as well as its many branch repositories, contains only about 1% to 3% of the documents and materials "created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government." (Fortunately, I might add). See About the National Archives. Only those documents of historical or legal importance (as judged by the government itself, of course) are kept in the vast storage areas. There is no practical way to describe the variety and complexity of the types of records maintained by the NARA. The records kept by the government are so vast that they are beyond the comprehension of any one individual and their value to genealogists and historians is priceless. The archival holdings number more than 10 billion pages of unique documents, many of them handwritten, and include formats such as maps, charts, aerial and still photographs, artifacts, and motion picture, sound, and video recordings.

To quote from the NARA Website:

With NARA’s strategic plan, Preserving the Past to Protect the Future: The Strategic Plan of the National Archives and Records Administration, 2006-2016, NARA recognizes the need to develop a long-term coherent strategy for digitizing and making available its holdings. The strategic plan says that NARA will work to digitize selected records, including those most requested by researchers, and will put searchable descriptions of all our holdings online. It also says that NARA will make digital copies of selected non-electronic records available online, and will set priorities for putting these holdings online.

If you have had the opportunity to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C. you will recognize that digitization would be a substantial improvement over the present on-site method of research. Not only would digitization preserve the documents from further deterioration, but it would make the documents available without the extensive restrictions imposed on visitors to the National Archive building.

Having said this, the NARA has very few actual records online. As of October, 2009, the following list of records were available from the NARA Websites directly:

• 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

However, the National Archives has a subscription to Footnote, 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. See Genealogists/Family Historians. Of course, you can also access these Websites free from other libraries including regional libraries of Family History Library or you could just subscribe and have your own access from your own computer. Before you visit a Family History Center for the first time, you may wish to call ahead and determine if the particular center you want to visit has access to the subscription services.

In my experience, as an example, I was able to find the Federal Court records of one of my great-grandfathers through the digitized images on Footnote from the Denver Branch of the National Archives. I have also found that the records on the Indian Reservations are very detailed and extensive, although not yet adequately represented online.