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Using the online catalogs of state archives to locate records of interest

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African American Genealogy Examiner

As discussed in previous articles, not all records are available online, and not all records are available from the Family History Library. Some records have been privately microfilmed by state archives, and many more have never been microfilmed, but are available only in their original paper form at the state archives.

To access records at the state archives, a researcher has a few options.

Many state archives will either perform small searches and copy records upon request. To locate the policies of the archives that holds records of interest to your research, explore their webpage. If you cannot identify any information regarding their policies to this end, feel free also to call or write directly to them.

Another option would be to hire a professional genealogist to perform the research for you. If you cannot travel, but require a large amount of research at a given repository, this may be the most economical. Many repositories provide lists of researchers who regularly work with their collections, or you can find a researcher on the rosters of the Association of Professional Genealogists or the Board for the Certification of Genealogists.

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The final option would be to travel to the archives and conduct the research yourself. If you still live near your ancestral home, this will not be too difficult. If not, you will have to investigate factors such as lodging and costs of transportation. Many researchers would prefer to conduct their own research, so this is always a popular option.

Before attempting any of these options, it is vital that you know what records are available at the repository, and what information you hope these records will hold. State archives have begun to digitize some of their more popular holdings and make them available online. However, as I stated above, so many are either available only on microfilm or only on paper at the archives itself.

If you want to identify records of interest, your best option is to review the online catalogs of the holdings of these various repositories. The appearance, mechanics, and detail of these catalogs varies greatly from state to state. Often you will find the basic catalog is supplemented by short research guides or descriptive material. When you are doing your preliminary research, be sure to read all of this material thoroughly.

The following links will take you to each of the individual state (and the District of Columbia) archives. Explore the website for the states in which your ancestors lived, and determine what records they hold that may be unavailable elsewhere.

For easy reference, I have also compiled a list of links directly to the online catalogs and holdings descriptions of each of these archives, where available. You can find this reference guide on my website at http://haitfamilyresearch.com/freeresources.aspx.

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, African American Genealogy Examiner

Michael Hait is a professional genealogist, specializing in Maryland research, African-American genealogy, and Civil War records.  Michael is the creator of THE FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH TOOLKIT CD-ROM, published by Genealogical Publishing Co. in 2008.  He currently serves as the instructor of a...

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