Washington ? Researchers, genealogists and the plain curious can now use the Internet to check more than 50 million historical records at the National Archives, from Civil War battles to family immigration files.

Before the system became available, people had to either visit the archives and spend hours combing through documents or request the files by phone and pay to have them mailed.

“Now, people can pull these electronic records at their own convenience,” said Michael Carlson, electronic and special media records director for the archives. “It’s totally self-service from your desktop.”

The records available on the database system represent a small fraction of the archive’s electronic holdings. They were selected because of their analytical and statistical nature — most deal with information that easily can be looked up based on specific names, dates, organizations, cities or states.

Carlson said he expected the service would be popular with veterans in particular because of all the information related to military action, casualties and POWs.

The database draws from the records of 20 federal agencies. Most of the information was created by the agencies to suit their own program needs, without any thought to its historical significance.