Hello, virtual volunteers! It’s a new year; we have a new Catalog. Let’s start 2023 with some new Citizen Archivist missions! We’ve refreshed our dashboard with new missions and more individual featured records, all waiting for you to jump in and transcribe.
Visit our missions page for the latest selection of records to tag and transcribe. We update our missions page regularly, so check back often to see what’s new! Here are a few of our latest missions. Check it out!
New to the Citizen Archivist program? Read on to learn more about resources and instructions to help you get started.
In celebration of African American History Month in February, we invite you to help transcribe records related to the “United States Colored Troops". These records include the military service records of Union volunteer soldiers who served during the American Civil War. Records include jackets (folders) containing cards on which information relating to individuals, companies, and regiments of the Volunteer Service of the United States during the Civil War have been copied from original records such as muster rolls, returns, descriptive books, and morning reports.
Transcribe an index showing the names of individuals and businesses charged with violating alcoholic beverage or internal revenue laws. Entries include address, file number, and date for each case. Your transcription does not need to match the format of the card, simply transcribe the text.
Transcribe general orders of the government of the Confederate States of America, which were either captured by Union forces, surrendered by Confederate forces or officers, or donated or purchased by the Federal government.
Military Departments -- Post of Austin, Special Orders Issued and Letters Sent, 1863-1864; and Eastern Sub-District of Texas, General Orders, 1863. National Archives Identifier 75810446
Transcribe the name index to the probate records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, from the early 1900s to 1961. The cards list the individual's name and tribe, date of death, an indication if the heirs were determined and if they were notified, the appraised value of the estate, and references to a file number in the central classified files.
Transcribe this civil action filed by Dr. InBae Yoon and his exclusive licensee, Ethicon, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, against United States Surgical Corporation for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 4,535,773, granted for a safety puncturing surgical instrument and method.
Help us transcribe records that includes the agenda prepared by the State Department; background information; territorial studies; discussion papers; Joint Chiefs of Staff recommendations; Combined Chiefs of Staff papers and meeting minutes; Heads of Government meeting minutes; President Harry S. Truman's correspondence with Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Chiang Kai-shek, and Joseph Stalin; miscellaneous papers and reports; conference reports and press releases; and communications to and from the Map Room.
You can also check out our newly updated featured records section. Here you’ll find individual records organized by skill level. You’re sure to find something new and interesting.
Are you a new Citizen Archivist? Need help getting started in the new Catalog? Check out our Resources page on our Citizen Archivist Dashboard.
Learn how to register and get started, and be sure to check out our step-by-step instructions and tutorials. These instructions, updated for the new Catalog, can all be found in our Resources section on our Citizen Archivist Dashboard.
As you contribute to the Catalog with tags, transcriptions and comments, look for the “Need Help?” link in the contribution window that will direct you to the Resources page.
Catalog Help, including searching and navigating the Catalog, is always available too, linked at the top of every page just like in the legacy Catalog. The information found on this page will help you learn how to search the new Catalog.
How to find a page to transcribe
In some cases, especially for records that are part of Citizen Archivist missions, you may have to look to find a page that has not been transcribed. You should now look at the thumbnails to see what pages you can transcribe.
Click on "Show Details" to see which pages have transcriptions:
In the Grid layout, look for the "X" which represents no transcription. Click on the thumbnail image to begin transcribing that particular page:
In the List layout, look for "Not Started" in the transcription column. Click on the thumbnail image to begin transcribing that particular page:
Important information about user accounts in the new Catalog
One of the biggest updates to the new Catalog is a change in how you access your National Archives Catalog user account. With our new Catalog, all user accounts and existing contributions have been migrated to Login.gov.
If you had an existing user account in our legacy Catalog, be sure your login.gov account uses the same email address that was associated with your legacy Catalog account. This will ensure your previous contributions are linked with your account in the new Catalog. More information about Login.gov accounts is available in our Login.gov Help Center.
Looking for a previous mission? Curious about the kinds of missions we’ve done in the last few years? Check out our Mission History page. On this page we list our previous missions so that you can review the records from previous projects. In a few cases, we still need some help completing the transcription or tags, so review the list and help us out. Did you have a favorite Mission this year? Let us know!
