Tips for Searching for People by Name in ARC
There are two ways to search for people in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC).
1. Use the Archival Descriptions Search
The Archival Descriptions search is the default search in ARC, and it is a good idea to start there. It searches through nearly all of the parts of all of the descriptions in ARC. This is your best chance for finding a needle in a haystack. Most of the names in ARC appear only in archival descriptions.
2. Use the People Search and link to archival descriptions
The People Search is one of the top-level search options in ARC. It searches through the people names that have been indexed (i.e., identified as important) in archival descriptions. These are most often famous and notable people, such as politicians and high-ranking government officials, or government employees or military personnel who had a creative role, such as photographers or artists. This search is helpful if you want to find all indexed ARC descriptions linked to a well-known person’s name. Some catalog records in the People authority file contain biographical information.
Keep in mind that ARC does not contain descriptions for all file units and items that include individuals’ names. However, the National Archives still might have records about your ancestors. ARC is a work in progress, and the National Archives is adding more descriptions to ARC every week.
Tips for Searching for People with the Archival Descriptions Search
Enter the person’s name different ways and use quotes to make your searches more specific.
- Search on the person’s name in first name-last name order and last name-first name order at the same time by putting the names in quotes and using OR between them.
- For example: “Shirley Chisholm” OR “Chisholm, Shirley”
- Bonus tip: Note that the search terms OR, AND, and NOT must be in all caps in ARC.
- Try the first name and last name without the quotes.
- For example: Shirley Chisholm
- For example: Shirley Chisholm
- Search on the person’s full name, including the middle name and the middle initial.
- For example: “Julia C. McWilliams” OR “Julia Carolyn McWilliams”
- For example: “Julia C. McWilliams” OR “Julia Carolyn McWilliams”
- Search on the last name only if it is not a very common last name.
- For example: Fahey
- For example: Fahey
- Search on variant spellings of the last name, including “Americanized” versions.
- For example: Luchetti OR Lucetti
- For example: McCarthur OR McArthur OR MacArthur
- Bonus tip: ARC ignores diacritic marks like accents and umlauds. You can just search for “Miro, Joan” for Joan Miró.
- Search on variant spellings of the first name, including “Americanized” versions.
- For example: “Joseph Maggio” OR “Guiseppe Maggio”
- For example: “Joseph Maggio” OR “Guiseppe Maggio”
- If the person is famous, you might want to make sure you are spelling the person’s name correctly.
- For example: Mathew Brady (with only one T in Mathew)
- Bonus tip: Photographer Mathew Brady and his studio’s employees took thousands of photographs of the Civil War, and more than 6,000 are available with digital copies in ARC. Search for the name of Brady’s studio, Brady National Photographic Art Gallery, which is how the individual photographs were indexed in ARC.
- Bonus tip: Use a search engine or online encyclopedia to verify the spelling.
Browse the digital copies of documents with people’s names.
Digital copies of selected documents that contain individuals’ names are available in ARC. For many of those scanned documents, the names are not keyword searchable in ARC. Instead, you need to browse the digital copy of the list by last name. The links below open a new browser window with ARC Search Results. See Tips for ARC Search Links for additional information.
Examples:
- World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing (Army and Air Force) - by state
- Summary of War Casualties (Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard) - by state
- Index to the Index to the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory (Index to Dawes Roll, ARC ID 300320)
Note: See the Tutorial: Using the Dawes Rolls Online for ordering reproductions of Eastern Cherokee application records, 1906-1909. - The Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory (Dawes Roll, ARC ID 300321)
- Index to Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion Miller Roll, ARC ID 300330)
Visit other National Archives’ online sources.
- Access to Archival Descriptions (AAD) contains several electronic files featuring information about individuals, including World War II enlistees, Viet Nam wounded and casualties, and Irish Famine immigrants.
- eVetRecs allows veterans and next-of-kin to request military service records.
- Order Online! allows any researcher to request copies of military service records for wars prior to World War I and other types of records specific to individuals for a fee.
Visit the National Archives’ digitization partner websites.
- Ancestry (Institution version) is available free in NARA research rooms and might be available free at your local library. Individuals may choose to join Ancestry.com for a membership fee.
- FamilySearch.org is available for free.
- Footnote.com includes digital copies of millions of pages of NARA records. They are available free from NARA research rooms and for a subscription or per-document fee from any computer.
Contact the National Archives.
Tips for Searching for People with the People Search
This is a good search to use for prominent people and people who had a creative or artistic role in the government like photographers.
There is a tutorial in ARC for the People and Organizations Searches.
Search for the person’s name different ways.
- Try first name and last name with the search term AND
- For example: Franklin AND Roosevelt
- Bonus tip: Note that the search terms OR, AND, and NOT must be in all caps in ARC
- If that returns too many hits, try using quotes for an exact phrase and putting the name in last name-first name order
- For example: “Kennedy, Jacqueline”
- For example: “Kennedy, Jacqueline”
- Try alternate versions of the person’s name, with nicknames, alternate spellings, and “Americanized” versions
- For example: “Kennedy, Jackie ”
Make sure you are spelling the person’s name correctly. You may want to use a search engine or online encyclopedia to verify the spelling.
Try entering the person’s name in the Archival Descriptions Search.
- We may have archival descriptions that mention this person, but the name was not indexed. See the above search tips for Archival Descriptions Search.
