The National Archives issued a press release regarding a new 160 page guide to conducting family research at the Archives. A copy of the release can be read on the Wall Street Journal Market Watch site:
Genealogy Tool Kit Published by Foundation for the National Archives
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Step-by-Step Guide to Family Research at the National Archive
The Foundation for the National Archives announces the publication of the Genealogy Tool Kit: Getting Started on Your Family History at the National Archives, written by National Archives genealogy archives specialist John P. Deeben.
This 160-page step-by-step guide was published by the Foundation and launched in April 2012 to coincide with the celebration of the National Archives’ release of the 1940 U.S. Census. The Foundation has long supported research at the National Archives, including its annual support of the Archives’ Genealogy Fair, and the development of genealogy products such as this Tool Kit and other archival and research-oriented items.
The Genealogy Tool Kit will help family researchers of all levels of experience to explore how their ancestors interacted with the Federal Government over the course of their lives. Did they enter the United States from a foreign country? Apply to become an American citizen? Enlist in a regiment during a particular war? File for a patent, homestead, or pension?
Through such questions, and many more, the Genealogy Tool Kit helps genealogists to navigate the records at the National Archives, from census and naturalization records to military and federal land grant records. With checklists to track the readers’ progress, family trees to fill in as ancestors are discovered, and room for taking notes, the Tool Kit will also serve as researchers’ own record of their family history research project.
The Genealogy Tool Kit also includes the personal discovery stories of Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles, as well as inspirational accounts from several other family historians.