National Archives at Boston

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:waltham.archives@nara.gov waltham.archives@nara.gov]

Located in the Frederick C. Murphy Federal Center Address:380 Trapelo Road Waltham, Massachusetts 02452-6399 Telephone: (781) 663-0130 Fax: (781) 663-0154 Hours and holidays: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Open some Saturdays 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.:

Map, directions, and public transportation:


 * For a map, click here.
 * By car from Boston: Take Massachusetts Turnpike west to Route 128/I-95, Exit 15. Take Route 128/I-95 north to Trapelo Road, Exit 28A - Belmont. Follow Trapelo Road for 2.8 miles. The facility is on the right. For an alternate route, take Storrow Drive, Boston, to Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, to Belmont Street, Watertown. Continue on Belmont Street to Trapelo Road. The facility is on the left.
 * By car from west: Take the Massachusetts Turnpike to Route 128/I-95. Go north on Route 128/I-95 to Trapelo Road, Exit 28A - Belmont. Follow Trapelo Road for 2.8 miles. Archives is on the right.
 * By public transportation: From the Park Street station, take the MBTA bus to Harvard Square. From Harvard Square, take the MBTA bus to Waverly Square in Belmont (bus runs every 15 minutes). Walk or take a taxi 1.5 miles west on Trapelo Road to the facility.

Internet sites and databases:


 * National Archives at Boston Internet site gives contact info, FAQs, featured documents, genealogical and historical research, holdings, guides, court records, new accessions, programs, and services.
 * For Genealogists and Family Historians resources, how-to, workshops, military and civilian records.
 * Access to Archival Databases (AAD) a search engine into some of NARA's holdings of electronic records. Search by person, geographic areas, organizations, or dates.
 * Archival Research Catalog (ARC) the online catalog of over 63% of NARA's nationwide holdings. Searches by keywords, by location, organization, person, or topics, and for digitized images.
 * Archives Library Information Center (ALIC) American history and government, archival administration, information management, and government documents for archivists, librarians, and the public.

Collection Description
Serves Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Includes all federal censuses to 1930 on databases or microfilms, U.S. District, Circuit, and Court of Appeals records of the 1st District, customs and the Coast Guard in New England ports, Army Corp of Engineers for Boston and Providence, World War II labs at Harvard and MIT, and New England Naval shore establishments, War of 1812 privateers, Civil War Southern blockade records, original naturalizations and index for six New England states 1790-1906, import and export trade, lighthouses, revenue cutters, vessels, seamen, crew lists, shipping, and wreck reports, east coast passenger arrival lists, War of 1812 service records, World War I expeditionary forces and draft registration records, Chinese immigration, Freedmen's Bureau for African Americans, and Dawes Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

Tips
Over 68% of the Regional Archives' records are currently described in ARC at the series level. If you do not find the records you are seeking, please contact the local staff.

Guides

 * Guide to Archival Holdings at NARA's Northeast Region, Waltham (Boston) Record group level descriptions of archival holdings including agency administrative history.
 * Federal Records Guide Search NARA's holdings of federal records at a very high level, to identify which record groups may have material about your research topics. Alphabetical index to the Federal Records Guide. Record Groups by topic clusters in the Federal Records Guide.
 * Other Holdings, Guides and Selected Finding Aids for the National Archives at Boston.
 * Loretto Dennis Szucs, and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1988), 14-16. WorldCat entry. Describes each field branch collection, microfilms, services and activities. Each of 150 record groups of the archives is also described.

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service &amp; pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.
 * National Archives II, College Park, MD, Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, and Treasury all after 1900.
 * Federal Records Center, Pittsfield, for genealogical, local, and national historical records including Canadian Border Crossings.
 * John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, administration biographies and papers, institutional holdings, Earnest Hemingway collection.
 * National Archives at New York City federal records from New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Including census, naturalization, passenger arrivals, Canadian border crossings, customs, draft, military service, military pension and bounty land, Chinese Exclusion Act cases, Freedmen's Bureau, Indians, and vital records. Closing soon. 
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY, papers of the administration.
 * U.S. Military Acadamy Archives, West Point, NY, papers of acadamy offices and committees.

Similar Collections


 * National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO., has millions of military personnel, health, medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services starting with World War I, and federal employee records.
 * FamilySearch Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and records pertaining to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
 * Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana, premier periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, ethnic, and Canadians.

Neighboring Collections


 * New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, national in scope. Over 100 million name database, of vital records, genealogies, journals, over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and over 20 million manuscripts with emphasis on New England and New York since the 1600s.
 * Boston Public Library, has government docs, newspapers, biographies, obituaries, Ancestry.
 * Boston Athenaeum, a member library with newspapers, maps, photos, Civil War letters, diaries.
 * Suffolk County Courthouse, maintains criminal and probation records.
 * Suffolk Probate and Family Court, wills, guardianship, divorce, adoptions, name changes.
 * Suffolk County Registry of Deeds, preserves land records.
 * Bostonian Society, does historical records research, and structures preservation.
 * Massachusetts State Library holds government documents, town, county and state histories.
 * Massachusetts Archives, vital records, passenger lists, census, military, Maine, Plymouth Colony, court, natuaralizations, divorces, probate, name changes, and state institutions.
 * Massachusetts Historical Society, has personal papers of families who lived in Massachusetts.
 * Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, keeps births, marriages, and deaths.
 * Harvard University Libraries, history, Afro-American studies, and women's history libraries.
 * Congregational Library, church and mission records, histories, sermons, 25,000 obituaries.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk.
 * Peabody Essex Museum Library, Salem, collects published MA vital records to 1850, city directories, Essex County probate records 1638-1914, court records, and ship logbooks.
 * Repositories in other surrounding states: Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont.
 * New York Public Library Genealogy Division has an outstanding collection of American history at national, state and local levels; international genealogy and heraldry in Roman alphabets; Dorot Jewish collection; photos; New York censuses, directories, and vital records.
 * Connecticut State Library, Hartford, has the Barbour Collection, Bibles, census, church, Charles R. Hale Collection newspaper marriages and deaths, cemeteries, probates, vital records, directories, land, local histories, military, naturalization, passenger arrivals, and e-mail questions.
 * Maine State Archives, Augusta, has vital records, land, office records, military, judicial, legislative records, and a list of professional genealogists.
 * New Hampshire State Archives, Concord, has records of probate, land, petitions, state papers, military, census, name changes, photos, naturalizations, voters, warnings out, town records and inventories, prisoners, marriage intentions, paupers, maps, and court records.
 * New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, New York City, has censuses, city directories, church, cemetery, Bible, land, probates, genealogy, local history, and manuscripts.
 * Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, includes local, military, economic, social, church, political histories, newspapers, genealogy, women’s history, and business records.
 * Vermont Historical Society Library, Barre, houses town histories, an index to vital records to 1870, cemeteries, letters, diaries, ledgers, early maps, photographs, and printed genealogies.
 * Berkshire Athenaeum Cooke Collection church and cemetery records, newspaper notices, ministers' records, BMDs from New England and New York, genealogy databases.
 * Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, Ashland, is an educational organization.
 * American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, collects history, genealogy, Bibles, maps, biography, newspapers, directories, Native Americans, women, canals, railroads, photos, manuscripts.
 * Connecticut Valley Historical Museum local archives, French Canadian, Irish, African American.
 * Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, has steamship photos, logbooks, and crew lists.