National Archieves?

Question:If I can't find who my great grandfather parents were, would the National Archieves have that information?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: If I can't find who my great grandfather parents were, would the National Archieves have that information?

Joe,
The National Archives wouldn't have any more information than the local vital statistics office. If you know for a fact what county your grandfather, Fred Sanford was born in and you know the date of birth, I would go ahead and send off for the birth certificate without the parents names. Simply write unknown in the blanks where the parents names are. Vital Statistics offices do understand that sometimes you don't know the names of the parents, especially in cases where the record is over 100 years old. I have sent off for lots of certificates where I wrote unknown in various blanks of the request form.

Also remember, that different branches of the National Archives have different things. For example, I live near a branch that has the Dawes Rolls and the records for the five civilized Native American tribes. These records cannot be found at other branches of the archives, so what you find at the archives relies heavily on what branch you intend on visiting. I hope this helps. Take care.

Possibly but it is not guaranteed. If they were not born in the US you will probably have to go to the records of their country of birth to find out. If you can get a copy of your greatgrandfathers birth certificate it should have his parents names listed

I spend a lot of time at the main National Archives in DC and the Library of Congress. As HSK's Mama pointed out, there are many different branches, so specific documents/information are spread out. I can only speak about DC.

Unless you have a specific researcher status, you will be working with the staff (you can't get to the stacks/storage yourself). Now they are wonderful, exceptionally knowledgable and helpful people. But they are human beings and are servicing many people every day. They really need something to work with. You have to have a lot of information when you walk in and be willing to spend substantial amounts of time.

Might I suggest before going that route to just provide additional information to your question identifying and giving as much information about your great grandfather as you have (including siblings, spouse(s), and of course any vital statistics you know). Maybe one of the experienced genealogists can dig up something for you.

Joe, from working with your family last week, I'll offer an opinion.
The National archives will have the original census films. Of course, those are already acessible via ancestry.com or other sources. I know absolutely that your Hardy needs to be found in the 1900 census, if he was enumerated. It is true that families were 'missed' during the census, but also true that the name could have been mispelled.
The Natl archives will NOT have records such as birth certs, which are state mandated. Georgia did not require these when Hardy was born, or in 1903 when Fred was born.
What can be difficult is the idea that MANY records are on a local level, but not online. FROM THE EVIDENCE (I spent an hour or so the other night on your question), the 2 most likely places are Lee co, Georgia or Dodge co, Georgia.
Hardy is almost surely found in the same county where he and Hattie married. Marriage records will be local. The 1910 census shows they were married about 8 yrs. The one county that did have online records for marriage, cut off at 1900. That does not mean they don't exist.
My advice is that you haven't been able yet to 'work' the local records. It may require personally going there.