Archive guide · US
National Archives Catalog (NARA)
searched live by Provara
What it holds
Passenger lists, naturalizations, military service and pension files, homestead/land files, census images, federal records
Who runs it, and on what terms
- Provider
- U.S. National Archives
- Licence for use here
- Public domain (US federal government work)
- Attribution
- Cite 'National Archives Catalog' with the NAID
- Cost to search
- free (key by email)
- Terms read
- 2026-09-06
- Official documentation
- https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/help/api
How to search it in Provara
- Immigration and passenger lists: ask Provara when and where an ancestor arrived.
- Military service and pension files: ask Provara whether an ancestor served and what the file holds.
- Land and homestead records: ask Provara about land an ancestor claimed or sold.
- Census returns: ask Provara where a family was living in a given census year.
- Government records: ask Provara what government records exist for an ancestor.
- Provara searches this archive alongside every other live one, ranks what comes back by how many of the person's recorded facts each hit contains, and shows you the record with a ready citation. Nothing is added to your tree until you confirm it.
Record types here
- Immigration and passenger lists — Arrivals by ship or border: name, age, origin, destination, sometimes the relative they were joining. The bridge between the old country and the new.
- Military service and pension files — Enlistment, service, discharge and pension papers. Pension files in particular name spouses, children and witnesses.
- Land and homestead records — Patents, deeds and homestead files: where a family settled and when, often with neighbours and witnesses.
- Census returns — A household on one day: names, ages, birthplaces, occupations and relationships to the head. The backbone of placing a family in a decade.
- Government records — Federal and state records beyond the census: naturalisations, court files, agency records.
No card needed. Build and source your tree free; search these archives free; the assistant's research runs on tokens.
Every licence on these pages was read from the archive's own terms on the date shown. Provara proposes only what a record it has read supports, shows the record beside the claim, and marks anything unsourced as a hypothesis. Nothing on this page states a fact about any person.