How To Locate or Order Military Records

• Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 
  Online file available as two tables in the Access to Archival Databases tool. The main table is the Army Serial Number Enlistment Card Records table that has records for almost 9 million men and women who enlisted in the Army and Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. The Army Serial Number Reserve Corps Statistical Card Records table has records for approximately 300,000 reservists in the Enlisted Reserve Corps.
• How to Obtain Military Pension Files from the Department of Veterans Affairs 
• National Personnel Records Center 
  Military Personnel Records NPRC (MPR).
• Soldiers of the First World War — Canadian Expeditionary Force 
  An index to the personnel files of over 600,000 soldiers that enlisted during the First World War. Copies of over 50,000 pages of Attestation papers have been scanned and are available online here.
• U.S. Civil War Pension & Military Records
  • Arkansas History Commission - Request Form For Photocopies of Arkansas Confederate Pensions 
  • Arkansas History Commission - Request Form For Photocopies of Arkansas Military Service Records 
  • Civil War Records 
    An article from the National Archives.
  • Civil War Records: An Introduction and Invitation 
    Article by Michael P. Musick from the National Archives web site.
  • Civil War Veterans: Copies of military & pension records 
    Send e-mail to order form NATF 80, Veteran's Records (before WWI only). You will need to give them your postal mailing address.
  • Confederate Ancestor Research Guide 
  • Confederate Military Records at the Archives  ~ South Carolina
  • Confederate Military Records - Civil War Military Records in the U.S. National Archives 
    A how-to guide by Howard Beckman.
  • Confederate Pension Records 
    An article from the National Archives.
  • Confederate Pension Rolls, Veterans and Widows 
    From the Library of Virginia Digital Collections.
  • Florida Confederate Pension Application Files 
    Search this online index then follow the instructions for ordering a copy of the pension file.
  • Georgia Confederate Pension Applications - State of Georgia Department of Archives & History 
    "The purpose of this community service project is to digitize the microfilm associated with the pension applications of Georgia's Confederate soldiers and their widows.".
  • How to Order Military & Pension Records for Union Civil War Veterans from the National Archives 
    by Cyndi Howells.
  • Index to Confederate Pension Applications  ~ Texas
  • Index to Oklahoma's Confederate Pension Records 
  • Louisiana State Archives: Confederate Pension Applications Index 
    The index contains over 49,000 names that were included in pension applications submitted to the Board of Pension Commissioners. The records were later transferred to the Archives after the last pension was paid in the 1950's. More than 18,000 applications were microfilmed and are available to researchers at the Archives Library.
  • United States Civil War Service and Pension Records 
    Scanned image examples.

How To Locate or Order Miscellaneous Records

• Ancestry.com - Abstracts vs. Originals 
  Article by George G. Morgan.
• Ancestry.com - Beware of Secondary Sources! 
  Article by George G. Morgan.
• Ancestry.com - Online Data Should Lead Us to Primary Records, Not Replace Them 
  Article by Juliana Smith.
• Requesting Your Ancestor's Naturalization Records 
  A guide by Dennis Piccirillo.
• The Wonderful World of Manuscripts 
  Article by Timothy G. X. Salls.

How To Locate or Order Vital Records

• Parish and Vital Records List 
  A list of indexed church and vital records available from the LDS Family History Library.
• VitalChek 
  Certified copies of birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates and other vital records.
• Vital Events Indexes - BC Archives  ~ Canada
  • Birth Registration Index Search Gateway, 1872 to 1898 
  • Marriage Registration Index Search Gateway, 1872 to 1923 
  • Death Registration Index, 1872 to 1978 
• Vital Records Information - State Index 
  Information about where to obtain vital records (such as birth, death & marriage certificates and divorce decrees) from each state, territory and county of the United States.
• Where to Write for Vital Records  
  From the National Center for Health Statistics, United States
• www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk 
  Online searchable index of Scottish births from 1553-1901, marriages from 1553 to 1926 and deaths from 1855 to 1951. In addition, indexed census data is available from 1881 to 1901.

Online Primary Sources

• Ancestry.com - Historical Newspaper Collection 
  Searchable indexes; database results and some digitized images available with fee-based subscription.
• Anti-Annexation Petitions 
  Ku`e: the Hui Aloha `Aina anti-annexation petitions, 1897-1898 compiled by Nalani Minton and Noenoe K.Silva.
• Arapahoe County (Includes City of Denver) Marriages 1861-1868  ~ Colorado
  Scanned images indexed by surname of bride and groom.
• Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates 
  Online searchable database of scanned images for birth records 1887-1928 & death records 1878-1953.
• Archive of Primary Sources at DoHistory 
  Graphic images of primary source material focusing on early American history. Transcriptions for some of the sources are also provided.
• Archives Records Information Access System (ARIAS) 
  Scanned images of over 200,000 original records from the Pennsylvania State Archives.
  • ARIAS Instructions 
  • Record Details 
    • Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File 
      Abstract card file contains transcriptions of data extracted from original records in the custody of the State Archives concerning Revolutionary War service in the Pennsylvania Militia, Pennsylvania Line, and the Navy.
    • Spanish American War Veterans' Card File of United States Volunteers 
      Card file of veterans who participated in the Spanish-American War was created by the Office of the Adjutant General in 1941 from information taken from the official records of the United States War Department.
    • World War I Service Medal Application Cards 
      Cards were originally submitted by veterans and their survivors who applied for service medals in accordance with the Act of April 21, 1937.
• Bethlehem Digital History Project  ~ Pennsylvania
  Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was founded in 1741 by a group of Moravians. For over one hundred years Bethlehem was exclusively Moravian. This project provides digitization and web publication of specific primary source materials relating to the early history of Bethlehem
  • Community Records 
    Provides both digital images of the source documents and transcriptions.
    • Bethlehem Diary 
    • Bills of Sale/Manumissions 
    • Choir Catalogs/Diaries 
    • Registers 
      Transcriptions of church registers for selected years.
      • Baptisms 
      • Deaths 
      • Marriages 
• Ayrshire Rifle Volunteers - Maybole Company Muster Roll  ~ Scotland
  Online scans of the original muster roll.
• The Bureau of Land Management - - Eastern States, General Land Office 
  The Official Land Patent Records Site. This site has a searchable database of over two million pre-1908 Federal land title records, including scanned images of those records. The Eastern Public Land States covered in this database are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin.
• The Cornell University Prototype Digital Library 
  Diverse collections of historical original materials which have been scanned and placed online.
  • Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion 
    Online searchable scanned images of the OR.
  • The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 
    Online searchable scanned images of the OR.
• The Cumberland Collection  ~ New Jersey
  Original documents scanned from the collections of the Cumberland County Historical Society and the Union House.
• Digital History Initiative  ~ Middletown, New York
• Digital Interlibrary Loan 
  From the Library of Congress. Small items that are too fragile to circulate on interlibrary loan are usually supplied through a photocopy. But photocopying often shortens the life of the original. Recently, the Library of Congress Loan Division began digitizing this type of material and "delivering" the images over the Internet. This makes the items widely accessible for current and future requests and contributes to the preservation of the original.
• Hillsborough County, Florida Marriage Records - Index 
  Records online from January 1878 through December 1893, including a scanned photo of the original document.
• Historic Records Imaging Project  ~ Centre County, Pennsylvania
  Online searchable index and scanned images.
  • Naturalization Records 1802-1929 
  • Revolutionary War Declarations 1820-1835 
  • Slave Records 1803-1820 
• Incorporating Primary Sources in the Classroom 
  From the National Archives and Records Adminstration.
• INGALLS Homestead File 
  Scanned images of 24 original documents pertaining to the DeSmet, South Dakota homestead of the family of Laura Ingalls Wilder. A terrific example from the National Archives and Records Administration.
• Internet Library of Early Journals 
  Scanned images of substantial runs of 18th and 19th century journals from the United Kingdom.
• Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office 
  Describes the land office process and includes historical images of the records involved.
  • Searchable Databases and Related Articles 
• The Library of Virginia 
  • Archives Research Services 
  • Digital Library Program 
  • Genealogical Research (Family History) 
  • Search Our Catalogs 
  • Research Guides | Bibliographies 
• The Match Workers Strike Fund Register 
  Scanned images of a register listing over 700 workers (mostly female) who went out on strike against the Bryant and May Match Factory in London in March, 1888.
• The MIKACEVICH Family Web Page 
  Nice example of a personal home page including photos, immigration documents, passports, marriage licenses, baptismal certificates, and more.
  • Documents, Newspaper Clippings, Obits, etc. 
• NARA Archival Research Catalog 
  A pilot database of selected holdings with digital copies of selected textual documents, photographs, maps, and sound recordings.
• NICHE - Networking Information and Collected History Electronically  ~ Albany & Rensselaer Counties, New York
  Provides scanned images of select local history collections from 29 member libraries in update New York.
• Northumberland Communities  ~ England
  Includes selected scanned photographs, manuscripts, Ordnance maps, census information & other documents for over 75 communities in Northumberland.
• Our Future, Our Past - Alberta Heritage Digitization Project 
  Images and text of Alberta folklore, architectual drawings, art, aerial photographs, maps, early Alberta newspapers, homestead files, and local Alberta histories.
• Playbills from Edinburgh’s Theatre Royal  ~ Scotland
  Searchable scanned images.
• Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History 
• Soldiers of the First World War — Canadian Expeditionary Force 
  An index to the personnel files of over 600,000 soldiers that enlisted during the First World War. Copies of over 50,000 pages of Attestation papers have been scanned and are available online here.
• The Stars and Stripes - The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 
  Online scanned images.
• St Asaph Notitiae  ~ Wales
  From the National Library of Wales. Scanned images of Montgomeryshire parish censuses in the Diocese of St. Asaph taken from 1681-1687.
  • Alphabetical Parish Index 
• Texas General Land Office - Archives and Records 
  • GLO | Archives and Records | Land Grant Collection 
    Online searchable database of over 442,716 land grant records.
• United States Civil War Service and Pension Records 
  Scanned image examples.
• Utah Digital Newspapers 
  Searchable digital images of 18 local Utah newspapers with a total of over 100,000 pages. Searchable by keywords, article titles, weddings, deaths & births.
• War Diaries of the First World War  ~ Canada
  Online searchable database contains the digitised War Diaries of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) units. From the National Archives of Canada

U.S. Census

• Original Census Images  ~ Washington state
  Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State.
  • Adams County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1885, 1887 & 1889 censuses.
  • Asotin County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1885, 1887 & 1889 censuses.
  • Chehalis/Grays Harbor County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1871, 1879, 1885, 1887 & 1894 censuses.
  • Clallam County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1860, 1883, 1885 & 1887 censuses.
  • Clark County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1871, 1883, 1885 & 1887 censuses.
  • Columbia County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1883, 1885, 1887 & 1889 censuses.
  • Cowlitz County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1871, 1885 & 1887 censuses.
  • Douglas County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1885, 1887 & 1892 censuses.
  • Franklin County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1885 & 1887 censuses.
  • Garfield County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1883, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1892 & 1898 censuses.
  • Island County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1860, 1871 & 1887 censuses.
  • Jefferson County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1860, 1871, 1874-1875, 1877 & 1885 censuses.
  • King County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1871, 1883, 1887 & 1892 censuses.
  • Kitsap County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1871, 1883 & 1885 censuses.
  • Lewis County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1851 census.
  • Mason County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1879, 1885, 1887, 1889 & 1892 censuses.
  • Thurston County Original Census Images 
    Scanned images online from the Washington Secretary of State. Includes the 1871, 1873, 1875, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1885, 1887, 1889 & 1892 censuses.
• The USGenWeb Archives Census Project 
  • The USGenWeb Archives Census Project - Census Images 
    Scanned images of the U.S. Federal Census.
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