We had read a lot of U.S. History this past semester, and the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Articles of Confederation, and the Bill of Rights were some of the documents we studied.  And now, we stood before these original documents reading them, and looking at the signatures of these important leaders of our country.  I guess I never realized before this trip that all of these original historical documents are on public display for everyone to view. 

The film at the very beginning of the tour is very interesting.  It explained all the ways that we the people can use this institution. It can be helpful to trace your ancestry.  There was a testimony of a lady that wanted to know more about her grandfather.  She was able to discover a lot of important information about him and even got a picture of him.  http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/

Another person was trying to research a story on the Jews during the holocaust.  Within only two days she discovered a document that showed money of Jewish families in Swiss banks that had gone undiscovered for decades.

If you ever go to D.C., don’t miss the chance to see all of our original historical documents - it’s totally impressive.  And one of these days, I'm going to try my research skills at trying to find out more about my ancestry.