The National Archives recently announced the third in a series of online finding aid tools: the Donated Collection Explorer.
Rather than me trying to explain it, please go to the link above. As of September 2023, there are 845,435 scans from Donated Collections online representing 3.1% of the estimated total number of 27,266,434 estimated total textual pages. Yes, they have a ways to go, but it’s worth taking a look at. There are bound to be some gems in there to aid in your genealogy research.
The other two online collections that have had more significant updates are:
- Record Group Explorer includes all of NARA’s Record Groups (over 600) and provides access to over 140 million of our digital pages. As of August 2023, there are 228,093,651 scans online representing 1.9% of the 11,796,866,257 estimated total textual pages
- Presidential Library Explorer includes 14 Presidential Libraries and provides access to over 1.6 million digital pages. As of September 2023, there are 1,423,028 scans online representing 1.8% of the 78,900,875 estimated total textual pages across all Presidential Libraries.
It is worth your time to review these subcollections that have been digitized. There just might be some gems in their collections that further your research.
