NARA stands for National Archives and Records Administration. NARA's Northeast Region is located in Waltham Ma. in the Frederick C. Murphy Federal Center, 380 Trapelo Rd. Phone 781-647-8104.
If you have ever thought about tracing your family tree or are in the process and have roots in the northeast, this is the place to start.
Among their many holdings, which are open to the public for free, are the US Census Returns on microfilm from 1790-1920 for the full United States. Also included are the indexes for the 1880,1900,1910 and 1920 Census. Census' are a great place to start finding out about your family. Depending on the year of the census, they include occupation, number of years in the US, weather or not they are a citizen, family relationships within a household, education, country of origin and even more. In case your wondering why the 1890 census wasn't indexed , it was largely destroyed in a fire and unfortunately all the information was lost before it could be microfilmed.
Canadian Border Records, sometimes called the St Albans records are also here on microfilm and cover the years 1895-1954. This can help if your ancestor came first to Canada which is the case with many Irish immigrants from the famine era.
Passenger Arrival Records for the Port of Boston 1820-1874 and 1883-1936 and also for other New England Ports. Don't get too excited over this one however, there are some glaring gaps especially around the famine time 1845-1848. I know my ancestor came through there but I'll be darned if I can find a ship that is recorded on the date he says he landed. If you can find your ancestor though, its amazing how much information may be there. Sometimes even home town, ages, family groupings etc.
But the real reason to come here is because all the Naturalization and Immigration Papers for the New England States have been gathered here, even those from local courts. The questions asked of the applicants varied greatly from state to state and is for the most part much better the more recent you get. Some even have photos, which as you can imagine are ones no one has ever seen. Massachussetts asked great questions as early as 1854 when my young Irish ancestor told them he was born in Killarney in 1832, came to the US in July 1847 and has lived in Chicopee for more than 5 years. Quite a lot of information.
They also have some Revolutionary War Service Records, pensions and lots of other federal information.
They are open Monday, Tuesday and Friday 8am-4:30. Wednesday and Thursday 8am to 9pm and one Saturday a month. You will need at least a few hours just to familiarize yourself with the collection and the machinery. The staff here is great and if Walter Hickey is working tell him Thank You from Isabelle, Cindy and Colleen who he helped greatly when we were last there. Walter has been a speaker at several genealogy conferences I've gone to, so he knows what he's doing.
In case you didn't guess, I am a registered genealogist and have been for 15 years.