The Genealogy Tool Kit will help family researchers of all levels of experience to explore how their ancestors interacted with the Federal Government over the course of their lives. Did they enter the United States from a foreign country? Apply to become an American citizen? Enlist in a regiment during a particular war? File for a patent, homestead, or pension?

Through such questions, and many more, the Genealogy Tool Kit helps genealogists to navigate the records at the National Archives, from census and naturalization records to military and federal land grant records. With checklists to track the readers’ progress, family trees to fill in as ancestors are discovered, and room for taking notes, the Tool Kit will also serve as researchers’ own record of their family history research project.

The Genealogy Tool Kit also includes the personal discovery stories of Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and author and journalist A’Lelia Bundles, as well as inspirational accounts from several other family historians.

The Tool Kit is available for purchase in the Archives Shop in Washington, DC, over the phone at 202-357-5271, or via email at nationalarchivesstore@nara.gov