Archival research guides: how to find and read the records that prove your family’s story.

US & Transatlantic Archival Guides

• Ellis Island ship manifests: how to find your ancestor’s exact hometown on the second page. (8 min read)
  Learn how to read two-page post-1906 Ellis Island and US passenger arrival manifests, decode handwritten annotations, and uncover an ancestor's exact European birth village.
• US naturalization records: how First and Second Papers unlock an ancestor’s biography. (7 min read)
  How to locate and read Declarations of Intention (First Papers) and Petitions for Naturalization (Second Papers) to discover an ancestor's birth date, ship, and European hometown.
• WWI & WWII draft registration cards: why even men who never served left a signed biographical record. (7 min read)
  How to use 1917–1918 WWI Draft Cards and the 1942 WWII 'Old Man's Draft' to find exact birthdates, foreign birthplaces, employers, and signatures for men born between 1872 and 1927.
• The burned 1890 US Census: seven archival substitutes that bridge the 20-year gap. (8 min read)
  The 1890 US Census was destroyed by fire in 1921, leaving a 20-year gap between 1880 and 1900. Here are the 7 archival records historians use to reconstruct your family during the 1880–1900 gap.
• Tracing French & European ancestors: how to cross the Atlantic and read 300 years of homeland archives. (9 min read)
  How to bridge American records to French departmental archives, parish registers, and European civil registration to trace your family back to the 17th and 18th centuries.
• The 1940 & 1950 US Censuses: seeing the exact street where your parents or grandparents grew up. (8 min read)
  How to use the 1940 and newly released 1950 US Federal Censuses (including sample-line questions, Enumeration District maps, and income/migration columns) for family history.
• WWII service records after the 1973 fire: how historians reconstruct a soldier’s war when his file burned. (8 min read)
  Was your grandfather's WWII Army file destroyed in the 1973 NPRC St. Louis fire? Here are the auxiliary military archives historians use to reconstruct his unit, campaigns, and medals.
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: seeing the exact building where your ancestors lived and worked. (6 min read)
  How to combine Library of Congress Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps with annual city directories and census sheets to see the footprint of your ancestor's house, storefront, or factory.
• US parish & church registers: the hidden record that names your ancestor’s European village. (7 min read)
  Why 19th- and early-20th-century American church baptism and marriage registers often contain the exact European birth village that state birth and marriage certificates omit.
• Homestead files & probate packets: how land and estate records prove pre-1850 family trees. (7 min read)
  How to use Federal Homestead Act Case Files (1863–1908) and county probate estate packets to prove parent-child relationships before the 1850 US Census.

How These Sources Come Together in a Custom Book

In every book we compose—whether a focused Ancestor Portrait ($590) or a multi-generational Lineage Edition ($1,690)—we do not simply cite these records in a footnote. We reproduce the high-resolution archival image on the page, transcribe the 19th- or 20th-century handwriting (and translate it into English whenever the original act is in French, Italian, German, or Latin), and weave its details into a clear narrative.