How do i search the National Archives to obtain info on family for a family tree

Question:

How do i search the National Archives to obtain info on family for a family tree?

I was going to take a course on it, but it interfeares with school so i would like to learn from a website or a knowledgeable person.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/...
You asked specifically about the National Archives, so the direct thing is finding what they have to say about it. Maybe the operative thinking here is in the word 'national', or, the records that they have are generally going to lean to a broad scope, but the records will also be more original, and go into much more depth. Two direct examples that I can give you are the Federal census records are stored here, and another are records relating to the government and Native Americans. The second one might not even be applicable for you. And census records are accessible through other sources.
Since archives are comparable to a library, I'd use that as an analogy. YOU already know a library is full of books (and other items), however the librarian won't know at the outset, which of those items is relevant to you. You have to have some idea to start with. If not, then knowing how to browse the catalog will be something you need to be able to do. You'll need SOME focus. IE. you want to find details relating to Grandpa George who might have been a federal employee in early Montana. Just wanting whatever there might be about Grandpa George's history, is far too vague. You need to already have reached a point where you have some knowledge, in order for you to recognize that the journals of the Agriculture dept in Montana (analogy) is a likely place to be searching.
I'd also want to point out to you that the National archives is only one place where you'd expect to find family information for a family history. Many of the items that will be of value to you will be private records, ie Bible records or letters. A good deal of info is kept at the county level, such as deeds, wills, marriages, etc. Those are not likely to be at the Natl Archives. Is it really a course about the Archives that you want, or a more general class in genealogy itself?
I don't know your level of experience. For some of the sources I have used (certain libraries, etc), I normally use the first visit to get familiar with it. Admitedly... most of those types of visits were well before the internet was available, to browse their introduction before I went. I don't know where in the world you are, but if you are in the UK, at the Archives centre for each city or town there are staff on hand to help you and you can actually pay them to do the search for you, but that's not much fun, and it's not so rewarding either. You have to book in advance for them to do the search.
Or you can have a look at these links,
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/...
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
http://www.cyndislist.com/
http://www.archives.gov/
http://www.familysearch.org/
Hope this helps. go to www.familysearch.com.

Ask your parents and grandparents for their birth certificates or ask them to order them from the state Division of Vital Statistics. If you have $200, you can subscribe to www.ancestry.com and you will be able to find so much information. The census information is amazing. Also, try www.cyndislist.com. i also have a family of trees and was wondering how to get them It depends on what you are looking for. The website is awful to negotiate. If you are looking for the census there is a much easy website for that.

Check with your local library and see if they subscribe to heritagequest. If they do you can access it from their homepage with your library card. Here you can access the census. Much easier to negotiate.

I only use the National Archives to get military records because it just isn't a user friendly site.

Also try rootsweb.com and familysearch.org to see if anyone is working on your family. You can get clues from that. Just remember to always document your work to prove your tree. If you find something online ask the submitter for documentation. If they don't have it don't trust it until you document it to prove it. There isn't much from the National Archives on the internet that's useful for research. Instead, they have all of their records stored in Regional Administration centers. Each center holds different records...those for the states that it serves. In the browsing room, though, all hold the passenger lists, draft records and census records for the entire country.

Simply, call the day before you want to research there and sign up for a time (all morning or all afternoon...if they're not full, they usually let you stay all day). You'll need to show ID when you go in there and then you go into the browsing room. They aren't going to have much staff to help you, but ask for the basic layout of the room. You'll also be assigned to a viewer. You go around collecting the films you want to view, take them to your viewer, then copy down what you can. Most only have 1-2 special viewers where you can print copies.

If there are other records you'd like from the storage area, such as copies of their Immigration and Naturalization paperwork, federal court records, etc, then you fill out a record request and submit it. They'll pull the records and bring them to you (for a cost, sadly). You can't actually hold the originals, but you can get copies of them from film.

You can only leave the browsing room to either go to the bathroom or submit a record request at the reception area. They really frown on people going out to smoke or running back and forth to their car. If you do, it's possible you'll have a US Marshall following you around to make sure you're not a security risk.