Write down the searches that fail
A negative search is a result. Logging it saves time and points to the next record.
Vol. 1 · Researching the past ethically
Find your family's story in public archives, and keep careful notes as you go
Census sheets, ship manifests, county marriage books and old newspapers hold most of what can be known about ordinary people who lived a century ago. They're public, many are free, and the people who look after them are usually glad to help. OpenPasts is a set of guides to using them well, and a research log for keeping track of what you've checked.
We write for people researching their own families and their own towns. That shapes what's here and what isn't: there are no records about individuals on this site, no people search, and a whole guide on researching living people responsibly. Start with the log below, or read getting started first.
Research log
One card per person or question. Note every source you check, including the ones that turned up nothing, so you never search the same index twice. Saved only in this browser.
This browser isn't letting the page save. Your log will disappear when you close the tab, so export it before you leave.
Your cards
- No cards yet. Start one with "New card".
Pick a card on the left, or start a new one. A good card asks one question you could answer with a document: a date, a place, a name.
Where to look, by record type
Each kind of record lives with a different kind of keeper. Pick one to see who usually holds it and how to ask.
Census records
Who holds them: the US National Archives keeps the federal population schedules from 1790 through 1950. Personal census records stay closed for 72 years, so 1950 opened in 2022 and 1960 is due in 2032. Most of the 1890 census was lost after a 1921 fire.
How to search: free indexes run by the National Archives and its partners, genealogy databases at your public library, and state archives for the state censuses many states took between federal years.
Births, marriages and deaths
Who holds them: the state vital records office, usually part of the health department, and the county clerk or recorder where the event happened. Statewide registration started at different times in each state, often in the early twentieth century, so older events may only appear in county books, church registers or the state archives.
How to ask: check the state's rules first. Recent birth records are often restricted to the person or close family; older ones are frequently transferred to the state archives and open to anyone.
Immigration and naturalization
Who holds them: passenger arrival lists are at the National Archives. Naturalization happened in courts, so older papers sit with federal, state or county courts and their archives. For naturalizations after 1906, the federal immigration service kept its own copies, now requested through the USCIS Genealogy Program.
How to search: start with the census, which asks year of immigration and citizenship status in several decades, then go to the arrival list and the court records.
Military records
Who holds them: the National Archives. Older service and pension files are in Washington, DC; twentieth-century personnel files are at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Files become archival, and open to anyone for a fee, 62 years after the service member left the military. A 1973 fire at the St. Louis center destroyed many Army and Air Force files.
How to ask: veterans and next of kin can request recent files; for older files anyone can order copies. Draft registration cards for both world wars are a good first stop for men of the right age.
Newspapers
Who holds them: the Library of Congress runs a free collection of digitized historical newspapers, built with state partners. Local libraries and state historical societies hold microfilm of papers that haven't been digitized, which is most of them.
How to search: try spelling variants and initials, search the town as well as the name, and read the whole page around a hit. Small-town papers printed visits, illnesses and church news that never made it into official records.
Finding aid: the guides
Arranged in the order most people need them.
- Folder 1Getting started with family history
Start with what you know, interview relatives, work back one generation at a time, and cite every source.
- Folder 2Using the US census for family history
The 72-year rule, what each decade asked, how to search, and how to read a census page.
- Folder 3Finding historical newspapers
Free and paid collections, microfilm, search tactics for bad OCR, and what to read besides obituaries.
- Folder 4Researching local history at libraries and archives
Who holds what locally, how reading rooms work, and the maps, directories and deeds that bring a place back.
- Folder 5FOIA basics for historical records
When a FOIA request is needed, how to write one, fees, privacy exemptions and appeals.
- Folder 6Privacy and ethics when researching living people
Sharing trees safely, DNA surprises, sensitive records, and where research ends and surveillance begins.
- Folder 7How to get an old mugshot or arrest record removed from people-search sites
Expungement and sealing, state mugshot laws, data broker opt-outs, search engine removals and avoiding scams.
From the journal
Questions
Does OpenPasts have records about people?
No. OpenPasts doesn't publish, sell or search records about individuals. It's a guide to doing your own research in public archives, mainly into your own family and your own town's past.
Where is my research log saved?
Only in your own browser, on the device you're using. Nothing is sent to us. Use the export button to keep a copy, because clearing your browser data deletes the log.
What's the best first step in family history?
Write down what you already know, starting with yourself and working back one generation at a time, and talk to older relatives. Then look for each person in the census, which is free to search at the National Archives' partner sites and many libraries.