Washington, DC's Top 3 Sites for Genealogists

Each summer Washington, DC plays host to throngs of tourists clambering to see our nation's gleaming marbled monuments and world class museums. 

Perhaps even your family is planning a trip? Perfect! Your cover is set. They'll never suspect a thing.

There's plenty of America's revered history and stoic patriotism on display to keep them occupied while you quietly slip away to indulge your inner genealogist. Let's face it, cherry blossoms are nice, but they're not adding-ancestors-to-the-family-tree nice. Washington offers the genealogist so much more! 

Having lived in the capital city for over 12 years, I can assure you that there are some very renowned and quite accessible research facilities certain to make a family historian's heart flutter and reveal a branch or two on the family tree. 

Here are Washington's top 3 sites that every genealogist must cross off their bucket list.

National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives building occupies prime real estate midway between the White House and the Capitol Building.

Here's the important trick: send your family inside the museum entrance on Constitution Avenue. They'll be so enthralled viewing the original hand signed copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution that they won't even notice when you tiptoe away to the quieter Pennsylvania Avenue entrance reserved for researchers (ahem, that's you!).

Inside, you'll quickly register for a research card (it's free) and can chat with knowledgeable archivists who are able to pinpoint records that may help you solve a family mystery.

Perhaps you have a Civil War veteran among your ancestors? If he had a pension (or just applied for a pension) he may have a file that you can request and thumb through. I mean the original stinkin' file in your hand, eyeballing great-grandpappy's handwriting in ink, perhaps detailing his accounts of bloody battle and war wounds while conveniently namedropping his lineage.

I've had very exciting experiences in the Archives. For example, I learned that two 3rd great-grandfathers both enlisted in the Union Army. I was prepared to read harrowing details of the battles they fought and won. Instead, I learned that disease was the leading cause of death for enlisted men (see Disease in the Civil War).

In another case, I learned that my ancestors were Union sympathizers who had to make a hasty retreat from their home in Virginia when the Confederates invaded (see Running From the Rebels). In the haphazard retreat, the family Bible was lost in the Ohio River (say it ain't so!).

Which of your family's stories are held safe in the Archives?

Library of Congress

First things first: this is Washington's most beautiful building. You have to wander inside its great hall and marvel at its ornate interiors. It's an ode to humankind's written legacy. You can even see an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible!

Today it's billed as the world's largest library. It wasn't always. Much of the initial collection was destroyed when the British marched on Washington and torched everything in sight. Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library to re-establish the collection and position it for its current grandiose state.

For the genealogist, you'll want to pick up a researcher card (again, free) and - like a VIP - bypass the hordes of tourists (your family can occupy themselves in the many exhibit spaces) and step into the members only Main Reading Room. It's otherworldly and certain to inspire your genealogical research.

The Library offers an array of digitized treasures like its large collection of public domain images, including many of Civil War soldiers (not all in the public domain). Its crown jewel, though, may be the Chronicling America project, which features digitized American newspapers spanning 1836 to 1922. It's an ever growing collection with new papers added each year.

But you don't come to the Library of Congress to take advantage of their online features. You're here because there are thousands of published family histories in the stacks.

I pulled a volume that documented the genealogy of my 7th great-grandfather Erasmus Rosenberger who was born in what is now Germany and emigrated to the New World in the mid-1700s. The hefty volume - long out of print and only available to me because of the Library of Congress' expansive collection - detailed thousands of his descendants, including my own great-grandmother who had corresponded with the author decades ago.

It's really something special to read your great-grandmother's name in a book in the glorious Main Reading Room.

Daughters of the American Revolution
The national headquarters for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is just a short walk away from the White House. Leave your family gawking at 1600 Pennsylvania and then make a run for it!

DAR headquarters include a large library that is open (free!) to researchers. No membership card is required. Simply sign yourself in, collect a visitor's badge and be on your way. The book stacks are organized by state and then county. Volumes include county histories, published vital records registrations, biographies, and countless other works that aid your genealogy.

DAR's library is a fantastic resource because it includes publications from genealogical societies across the country, and many dating back decades. I spent time reviewing published burial indices from Lawrence County, Ohio during a search for my 4th great-grandfather's grave. Although I wasn't successful, I knew I had personally reviewed the same resources on the shelves of the Lawrence County Genealogical Society.

There's something gratifying about knowing that you have reviewed the source materials instead of relying on a third party researcher.

What Did I Miss?
These three locations offer the greatest value to the broadest group of researchers. But it's a big city and there are a handful of smaller collections at other repositories, many of them quite niche and tailored to specific research interests.

What did I miss? What should be a part of this list?

No Brick Walls in Google's Library

I've been away from the blog and genealogy this past month while traveling in India for work. It was, in a word, incredible. It's a country of extremes: beauty, color, poverty, heat, generosity.

Taj Mahal (photo by author)

I'm now home in the U.S. and ready to tackle my family history research. Yesterday, I made up for lost time and very nearly pulled an all-nighter as I dived back in with a vengeance. Like India, my genealogy motto is one of extremes: research hard or don't!

Researching Offline

I spent the afternoon at the Daughters of the American Revolution library trawling through dusty old volumes detailing Licking County, Ohio marriages, tax lists, probates, and land records. I wanted to see if I could learn more about my Kirk ancestors. Surely one of the many bound volumes held the clue I desperately needed to advance my research. 

It occurred to me, as I quietly turned page after page in each hulking antique tome praying for the author to name drop my ancestor, that it would take me months of sitting quietly in the reading room to finish just one of the books. 

They're reference materials. They can't be checked out. You can't read them carefully in the comfort of your home. If the book doesn't include a name index (as many of these older volumes don't), you just have to sit and read (and pray you don't overlook the name you're after). What I wouldn't give for these books to be online and keyword searchable.

Library of Tomorrow is Today

Back at home, reflecting on my lack of success at DAR's library, it occurred to me that maybe some of these older volumes had been digitized and were keyword searchable. Could I pull up the book and search (CTRL + F) for my family's surname? I Google searched a volume title and was directed to Google's Book database. 

Now, I have to admit that I knew this database existed. I've sat in conference sessions where genealogy tech guru Lisa Louise Cooke touted the value of Google technology, including Google Books. Regrettably, I always assumed that my ancestors didn't have sufficient notoriety to merit publication in a book. I never searched. Huge mistake! 

I dropped in the county name and Google turned up some of the enormous Licking County histories I was paging through at DAR. In a matter of seconds I was able to word search the volume and confirm my surname was not mentioned. Boom! Done! On to the next volume. Genealogy is time intensive. We don't have time to waste on resources that don't advance our family trees. We need to take advantage of tools like Google Books that make our research more effective and efficient.

Google Books Offers a Rapunzel-esque Climb Over a Brick Wall

I excitedly began searching a handful of surnames. Followers of the blog know I've been trying to learn more about Burr Zelah Dornon and his family. A search of his surname turned up a tantalizing clue. 

My 4th great-grandparents were highlighted in what appeared to be a list of descendants. Before this list appeared on my screen, Sophronia (Rogers) Dornon was a brick wall. I had no idea who her parents were (although family lore said her mother's maiden name was Gould).

Unfortunately, I was only able to see this small snippet of text. The book, as is the case with some volumes, was not available to be read online in its entirety through Google Books.

Unwilling to slow for this roadblock, I plugged the publication's title into a standard Google search and found a link to FamilySearch's library. Of course, the Mecca of genealogy had a copy in their holdings.

In a sign that the stars truly were aligned last night, the volume was available to access and read in its entirety through FamilySearch. In the comfort of my own home!

The text did in fact provide Sophronia's purported parents' names: Francis and Abigail (Gould) Rogers. It even provided both of their parents' names. In one evening, thanks to Google Books, I uncovered possible new sets of 5th and 6th great-grandparents. You try and go to sleep after that kind of success!

To help corroborate the information, I turned to Ohio probate records on FamilySearch and found Francis Rogers' 1843 will in Hardin County. In it, he doles out his assets to his family, including daughter Sophronia.

Sophronia inherits $75 from her father in his September 1843 will

A search for Abigail revealed that she not only survived her husband by nearly four decades, but she also survived daughter Sophronia. Find A Grave has a burial for Abigail in Iowa where she evidently lived with one of her sons.

Collectively, there remains a lot of work to document and substantiate these new leads, but in one fell swoop Google Books gave me a leg up that enabled me to peak beyond the brick wall. Perhaps this one will come tumbling down.