Opened 2026-11-03. Ran the Lonelyville founding/year-round names against the National Archives Catalog API v2 (live; helper + key saved in session scratchpad nara.sh, header x-api-key). Honest finding up front: NARA’s catalog full-text is NOT a genealogy name-index — searching common personal names (“Robert Federico,” “Warren James,” “Curt Davis”) returns collision noise. The real connections come through (a) place/record-TYPE series that are item-level catalogued, and (b) off-catalog federal series (OMPF, census, draft cards) that are name-indexed only via NARA’s digitization partners. Mapped per person below.
★ The concrete, pullable hit — the Clock-era maritime world
Fire Island Life-Saving / Coast Guard Station logbooks — RG 26, parent series “Logs of Lifesaving Stations, 1873–1941.” Held at National Archives at Philadelphia. Confirmed file units (bound-volume station logs, Unrestricted):
- naId 182770197 — Fire Island, Dec 1931–Jun 1933 (Box 587, HMS NY-830)
- naId 182770196 / 182770192 / 182770188 / 182770182 — Fire Island, consecutive date ranges of the same station log. This is the federal maritime presence on the barrier beach from 1873 — the exact world Capt. Selah T. Clock (1863–1934) operated in when he founded the Fire Island Fishing Company and built the 400-ft ocean pier in the late 1880s that Lonelyville grew around. Surfmen’s daily logs record wrecks, rescues, and baymen activity → likely to name Clock, the fishing company, and early residents by name. Next pull: request the pre-1900 Fire Island station logs (same series) from NARA Philadelphia.
Supporting place records (all digitized, NPS):
- naId 183510570 — “The Story of Fire Island” (FIIS history).
- naId 75322102 / 75325195 — Fire Island Light Station (NRHP).
- naId 78761302 — Suffolk County Postmaster Appointments (microfilm M841, Roll 90, 109 scanned images, via Ancestry) → names the Lonelyville / Fire Island / Bay Shore postmasters; check for a Clock or early-resident appointment.
- naId 75314855 — US Post Office–Bay Shore (NRHP).
Per-person map
| Person | Status | NARA hook |
|---|---|---|
| Capt. Selah T. Clock (1863–1934) — Lonelyville founder, Fire Island Fishing Co. | PLACE-LINKED | RG 26 Fire Island Lifesaving-Station logs (above) + US Census RG 29 (1870–1930, name-indexed) + Suffolk postmaster volume. No personal catalog item exists (searched “Selah Clock” → 0 hits); the tie is the station/place + census. |
| Pete Clock — current Lonelyville FIMI rep (2016–17) | N/A | Living/administrative; not a NARA subject. |
| Capt. Bob / Robert Federico — retired Naval officer (d. 2010), Captree Spray | OMPF (off-catalog) | Strongest personal hook, but not in the online catalog. His record is an Official Military Personnel File at the National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis (RG 24 / BuPers). Pullable by SF-180 with DOB/service dates (next-of-kin = daughter Ellen Federico). Catalog “Federico+Navy” hits were unrelated men. |
| Warren James (1923–2025) — WWII vet, Fire Island Ferry captain | CENSUS / WWII (off-catalog) | 1940 & 1950 Census (RG 29, name-indexed, both released) at Bay Shore/Lonelyville; WWII Army enlistment (RG 64 electronic file, 1938–46) or Navy/CG muster rolls. Needs middle initial/DOB — “Warren James” is common. |
| Frank Gangel (d. 2010) — of Wantagh/Merrick; wife Ruth Woodroffe Gangel | CENSUS / WWII (off-catalog) | Distinctive surname → 1940/1950 Census + likely WWII draft/enlistment. (Catalog “Gangel” hits are a different family — Hyman/Abraham/Philip Gangel — but prove the surname is traceable in District Court naturalization, DOJ, and Adjutant-General Civil War series.) |
| Kirk (“Kurt/Curt”) Davis — 67 Shell Walk; “old sea-captain energy”; identity unknown, no obituary | UNRESOLVED | The open mystery. IF military, an OMPF (St. Louis) could ID him — but with no DOB/service number and a common name, not findable in the catalog (searched “Curt/Kurt Davis” → 0). Realistic path: 1950 Census (released 2022) once a birth year/location is fixed. |
| Patricia “Patty” R. Davis | N/A | No federal-record hook; civilian (UMDNJ). Interment Rosehill Cemetery, Linden NJ. |
Method note
- Catalog API works:
GET https://catalog.archives.gov/api/v2/records/search?q=…&limit=…with headerx-api-key(NOT theapi_keyquery param — that returns empty) + aUser-Agent. Detail-by-naId is better fetched as the web record pagecatalog.archives.gov/id/<naId>(scrape) than the/records/<naId>path. - For the named individuals, the productive NARA series are census (RG 29), WWII Army enlistment (RG 64), draft registration (RG 147/163), and OMPFs (RG 24/NPRC) — these are name-indexed through NARA’s partners (Ancestry/FamilySearch), not the free catalog’s full-text. The free catalog is best for place/series records, which is where the real Lonelyville connection (the Lifesaving-Station logs) actually lives.