National Archives at Kansas City

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

Address:


 * 400 West Pershing Road Kansas City, MO 64108

Telephone: 816-268-8000

Hours and holidays: Monday-Friday 8-4. Federal holidays.

Directions, parking, map, and public transportation:


 * Driving directions to the National Archives at Kansas City
 * Parking:  in front of the building for free. The Union Station parking garage just east of the Archive is free for 30 minutes, but $2 per hour after 30 minutes.
 * Google map:  National Archives at Kansas City
 * Public transportation:  KCATA bus routes Main Street Max, 27, 40, and 47 each stop within two blocks of the National Archives.

Internet sites and databases:


 * National Archives at Kansas City main page, directions, parking, hours, contact us, research guides, and name indexes.
 * National Archives at Kansas City Genealogy Research resources, catalogs, mail order reproductions.
 * 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
The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 regional branches of the National Archives. They house federal records of agencies and courts from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Frequently used genealogy sources include censuses and indexes 1790-1930, immigration ship passenger arrivals for the Eastern and Gulf Coasts 1820-1982, military service records, pensions, bounty land warrants, and indexes 1775-1902, Federal naturalization records of U.S. District Courts, land records, bankruptcies 1940-1998, passport applications, Native American records, and African American records. The Archives also provides free Internet access to subscription sites like Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, and HeritageQuestOnline.com.

The Kansas City branch specializes in Leavenworth Penitentiary inmate files and mugshots, naturalization records, federal court records, federal land records, and Bureau of Indian Affairs records.

Tips

 * Researchers using microfilm do not need a researcher's ID card.
 * 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 Kansas City staff.

Guides

 * Resources for Genealogists 1940 census online, start your family research, browse popular topics, events, tools for genealogists, genealogy-related articles, caring for your family records, and other learning resources.
 * Federal Records Guide Search NARA's holdings of federal records at a very high level, to identify which record groups may have material relevant to your research topics. Alphabetical index to the Federal Records Guide. Record Groups by topic clusters in the Federal Records Guide.
 * Guide to Archival Holdings at the National Archives at Kansas City by record group number.
 * Loretto Dennis Szucs, and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, The Archives: A Guide to the National Archives Field Branches (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1988), 24-27. ; . 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 pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, bounty land, homesteads, ethnic sources, prisons, fed employees.
 * National Archives II, Suitland 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, and modern military records.
 * Kansas City Federal Records Center.
 * Lenexa Federal Records Center, Lenexa KS, serves federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska plus the Ogden IRS.

Similar Collections


 * National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), St. Louis, federal government employee and military personnel records starting 1917.
 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 2.5 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, censuses, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Neighboring Collections


 * Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, books, periodicals, letters, and diaries of the of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Community of Christ.
 * Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, local civil, criminal, and probate records since 1828.
 * Jackson County Health Department, Independence, Jackson County birth certificates since 1920.
 * Jackson County Historical Society, Independence, title abstracts, diaries, letters, 2000 books, business ledgers, census, city directories, court, election, tax, vital records, plat maps, newspapers, periodicals, photos, subject indexes.
 * Jackson County Medical Examiner, Kansas City, suspicious deaths.
 * Jackson County Recorder of Deeds, Kansas City, marriage and land records since 1827.
 * Kansas City Health Department, Kansas City birth certificates; deaths 1874-1909.
 * Kansas City Public Library Missouri Valley Special Collections, The Missouri Valley Room has a great genealogy collection for Missouri and Kansas with biographies, periodicals, genealogies, diaries, photos, scrapbooks, and newspapers of the Kansas City area.
 * Mid-Continent Public Library Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence, a great American genealogy collection: censuses, MO federal land sales, penitentiary, St. Louis fur trade, Civil War, passenger lists, plantations, American Indians, city directories, newspapers, Draper Manuscripts, and KY taxes.
 * Riverview Missouri Family History Center has premium online services for free, can offer research suggestions, and can order genealogical microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
 * United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Kansas City, recent federal civil, criminal, and bankruptcy court records.
 * Repositories in surrounding counties: in Missouri: Cass, Clay, Johnson, Lafayette, Platte, Ray, in Kansas: Johnson, and Wyandotte.
 * Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, Jefferson City, birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates.
 * Missouri History Museum Library, St. Louis, has regional history sources, St. Louis, Missouri, the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, the Louisiana Purchase, American West: indexes, guides, catalogs, photos, genealogy workshops. Many records of Missouri settlers from Illinois.
 * Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, has court, land, military, death records, federal censuses, county and municipal records, photos, penitentiary, and manuscript records. Birth and death record index since 1883 is online; birth records 1883-1895; marriages 1827-1937.
 * Missouri State Genealogical Association has donated their books the the Midwest Genealogy Center.
 * St. Louis County Library, a Missouri collection including the National Genealogical Society, and St. Louis Genealogical Society collections, online databases, federal censuses, births, deaths, cemeteries, church records, military records, naturalizations, newspapers, wills, African American records, yearbooks, and access to FamilySearch microfilms.
 * St. Louis Public Library obituaries, passenger lists, family histories, and HeritageQuest online.
 * St. Louis Mercantile Library, early newspapers, railroads, inland waterways, county records, biographies, and genealogies. A premier library for Missouri research.
 * State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, census, maps, newspapers, online tools, oral history, photos, historical manuscripts, and reference materials.
 * Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis Office of Archives and Records parish christenings, confirmations, marriages, and deaths.
 * Concordia Historical Institute, St. Louis, Department of Archives and History of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
 * Episcopal Diocese of Missouri Archives, St. Louis, a library, extensive document and photograph collections, and parish registers.
 * Missouri United Methodist Archives, Fayette, historical materials on Methodism in Missouri emphasizing ministers.
 * Repositories in surrounding states: Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
 * Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne IN, has a premier genealogical periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, American Indians, African Americans, Canadians.
 * Dallas Public Central Library, outstanding genealogical collection with records for more than Texas, including Missouri, Oklahoma, the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England states.
 * Newberry Library, a large Chicago repository with genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, and British Isles.