Citizen Archivist Dashboard

Citizen Archivist Missions

Contribute!

Ready to start tagging and transcribing? We've curated these topical missions to help you jump in and contribute! Click on a topic that interests you, and it will bring you right to those historical records in our Catalog. Tagging and transcribing makes these records more accessible to everyone. New missions are added and updated regularly, so check back often to see what’s new.

New to the National Archives' Citizen Archivist program? Learn how to register and get started and view the video How to Transcribe in the National Archives Catalog and other how-to videos on the Resources page if you need instructions.

Looking for a previous mission? Visit Mission History

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  • Users need to log in and log out of their Catalog accounts each day so that if our developers make any code changes to the Catalog overnight, your account and Citizen Archivist experience will work properly.

RevWar Banner

Revolutionary War Pension Files Transcription and Tagging Missions

The stories of over 80,000 men and women who lived through the American Revolution are waiting to be told. Will you help us tell them?

Join the transcription mission!                        Join the tagging mission!

 

Questions? Email us at citizenarchivist@nara.gov

Outside the Box Missions

Up for a challenge or something different? We often have records that require special work in order to make them more accessible. 

New to the National Archives' Citizen Archivist program? Learn how to register and get started
Already have an account? Login here.

Chinese Heritage

Chinese Heritage

Help us tag Chinese immigration records! We need your help tagging very specific details. Please read the instructions on the mission page carefully and begin contributing.

Join the mission

Featured Court Case

Mashpee Tribe v. Town of Mashpee, Massachusetts

The Town of Mashpee was established on shared land with the Mashpee people. An act was proposed that authorized the transfer of 60 acres of land to the members of the Mashpee community. However, the land could not be sold freely until the governor of Massachusetts formally granted the Mashpee community U.S. citizenship, thus ending their guardianship status. That change allowed Mashpee members to sell their land, especially to developers, for profit. Over time, Mashpee members began to feel limited as they no longer had access to their previous hunting or fishing grounds. They sued the town, claiming the land sold violated the Nonintercourse Act, whereas the town argued the tribe is not recognized as one under that Act. The Town of Mashpee disputed whether the Mashpee were, by legal definition, a tribe as defined under the Nonintercourse Act. A jury, after reviewing the Mashpee’s status at key historical dates, determined that the Mashpee were not a tribe under the Nonintercourse Act. The Town of Mashpee moved to dismiss the case. The Mashpee opposed the motion, but a subsequent appeal to the First Circuit upheld the lower court's opinion in favor of the town. Eventually, in 2007, the Mashpee were "re-acknowledged as a federally recognized tribe" and granted land reservations in 2015.

Start transcribing now

 

Transcriber Task Force

Transcriber Task Force

Seeking expert transcribers! We’ve gathered records that have tricky elements for our expert transcribers. Here's what we'd like you to do:

  • Complete difficult transcriptions
  • Help decipher words that are marked [illegible]
  • Convert notations of [?]  [unreadable] or similar to [illegible].  We ask that you do this so that we’re consistent in how we indicate difficult words.

Get started transcribing!

1950 Census Transcription Projects

The 1950 Census is here! We're looking for help transcribing the initial name index for the 1950 Census. While you can transcribe any name or any page within the 1950 Census, we've identified several specific areas where we'd like your help transcribing.

Help refine the 1950 Census name index!

 

 

Questions? Email us at citizenarchivist@nara.gov

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