National Archives' Databases - AADBy Connie LenzenA column written for the 15 July 2004 issue of the Vancouver Columbian. |
Archives are different from libraries. A library has books, microfilm, CDs, and published materials that are organized by a cataloging system. We can search the catalog by title, author, and subject. Usually, we can check out the materials and take them home.
In an archive, you may find books, microfilm, CDs, and published materials, but the emphasis is on the storage of materials from an institution. The archive contains the memory of that institution, the important documents that need to be preserved. It can be a national archive, a state archive, a city archive, a business archive, etc. The memory is incomplete because individual pieces of paper may disappear.
In an archive, there is not a catalog of materials that you search by title, author, or subject. There may be inventories of documents so that you have a summary of the types of documents that are in various file folders and boxes.
Documents in an archive are structured in a peculiar way. They are usually divided into something called record groups. An example is the National Archives' "Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85."
When we go into an archive, we cannot say, "I want to know everything about my ancestor."We need to have specific questions in mind. We need to think about how our ancestor may have made contact with the government or business. We can look for what property our ancestor owned, what taxes were paid, what schools they attended. We can look for information about our ancestor's military service or naturalization.
A number of archives are indexing their most popular records. The National Archives' index is called "Access to Archival Databases (AAD)", and it allows you online access to electronic records. It includes more than 400 data files with over 100 million records. You can find it online at http://www.archives.gov/aad/.
One of the databases in the index is the World War II Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File. It contains the names of almost nine million men and women who enlisted in the Army and Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.
Another database contains information about people who may have been a prisoner of the Axis Powers during World War II.
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© 2004
Connie Lenzen, CG