Finding Records at NARA

History Hub Resurrected as the “Open History Hub”

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As previously noted in “Goodbye History Hub,” the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) ended its “History Hub” experiment on 13 February 2026.

Someone (not me) has resurrected the site as the “Open History Hub” at https://openhistoryhub.com/.

To participate in “Open History Hub” you first create a new user account. This means that new users can join – not just those who used the old History Hub!

A user of the old History Hub first creates a new user account then follows a procedure described on that page to “reclaim” their old account. Reclaiming one’s account allows you to edit your previous content and be shown as an active member on the new website. If you want to know if a previous user is active on the new site, you can find out by clicking on their name. The notice “This user is no longer active” pops up if they are not. If they are active, a different message will appear.

Although “Open History Hub” has preserved NARA-created content from the old History Hub, it’s important to note that “Open History Hub” is not a NARA project, so do not expect NARA staff to answer your questions! (Send questions to NARA at inquire@nara.gov.) Instead, both questions and answers on this site will be entirely researcher-driven.

Since there are so many forums on the web for asking and discussing genealogy questions, it will be interesting to see how this website develops and thrives (or not). Kudos to the Open History Hub’s creator(s) for giving it a shot.

“Save Our National Archives” (SONA) Steps Up in Response to NARA’s Announcement of Plans to Close Two Regional Research Facilities: The National Archives at Chicago and the National Archives at San Francisco (San Bruno)

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Updated 7 July 2026

“Save Our National Archives” (SONA) Steps Up!

Genealogists and other researchers have banded together to “Save Our National Archives” (SONA). For information on how you can help this effort, please see “Save OUR National Archives” at https://www.saveournationalarchives.org/.

NARA Announcement on Forthcoming Closure of Chicago and San Bruno Regional Archives

On 23 June 2026, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued “NARA Notice 2026-037: Closure of NARA Facilities” to all employees. This Notice stated in part:

“Over the next few years, NARA will close the National Archives at Chicago/Chicago Federal Records Center (FRC), National Archives at San Francisco/San Bruno FRC, and move all temporary records from the Seattle Federal Records Center.

Research Services will relocate the accessioned records in archival bays at the National Archives at Chicago and San Bruno to other Research Services archival locations. Archival and permanent holdings in Seattle will remain until a suitable replacement facility is identified. The Federal Records Centers Program will relocate the temporary records at the Chicago FRC, San Bruno FRC, and the Seattle FRC to other FRC locations. We expect the moves to begin within the next few months.

This decision is an opportunity for NARA to maintain our core mission and functions while improving efficiency and effectiveness. These facility changes support the long-term financial health and viability of the Federal Records Centers Program’s revolving fund, reduce expenses for the Operating Expense (OE) fund, and reduce our real estate portfolio in alignment with the administration’s priorities. We will move forward with care for our colleagues, our records, and our programs in a way that strengthens our agency for the work to come.”

Difference between a Regional Archives and a Federal Records Center

There’s a lot to unpack in those paragraphs. The National Archives at Chicago, the National Archives at San Francisco, and the National Archives at Seattle are all research facilities open to the public. They contain accessioned archival records created by Federal agencies in the states served by those facilities. Therefore:

  • NARA at Chicago contains accessioned archival records created by Federal agency offices in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
  • NARA at San Francisco (San Bruno) contains accessioned archival records created by Federal agency offices in California (north and central), Nevada (except Clark County), Hawaii, U.S. Navy bases on foreign territory in the Pacific and Far East, American Samoa, Guam, and the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
  • NARA at Seattle contains accessioned records created by Federal agency offices in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (state).

These research facilities are currently co-located with Federal Records Centers (FRCs). FRCs are large warehouses that contain Federal records that are either temporary (because they lack permanent value) or permanent records that have not yet been transferred to the legal custody of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on how records are determined to be temporary or permanent, please read “Appraisal Policy of the National Archives” at https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/scheduling/appraisal.

The Federal government is transitioning from paper-based records to electronic records, so the need for Federal Records Centers (FRCs) is declining and will continue to decline. It’s hard to think about what a large warehouse looks like on the inside – and it’s not quite accurate – but think of the scene in the entirely fictional movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the box with the Ark of the Covenant is being pushed into a giant government warehouse. With fewer records being created on paper, the need for such large warehouses is diminishing.

Although co-location of Regional Archives (for the public) and FRCs (warehouses for federal agencies) has been traditional, it doesn’t have to be that way. Some Regional Archives have existed in facilities separate from an FRC, such as the former New York City Regional Archives.

NARA Regional Archives Program Brief History

NARA’s Regional Archives Program has a very long history – and I am indebted to NARA retirees for the following information.

The Regional Archives were created to ensure that records created by Federal agency offices across the country stayed in the general region in which they were created. In other words, Regional Archives (research facilities) were established to help ensure the public had access to Federal records created in their region.

The Regional Archives Program – based on a suggestion in the 1941 Seventh Annual Report of the Archivist – was formally created in early 1969. It grew slowly in the early 1970s, then faster after “Roots” and the 1976 Bicentennial celebration.

About 1981, the entire National Archives and Records Service (NARS) (as it was then known) suffered greatly due to the budget cutting fervor of that time. Budget cuts of around 17% (which is lot) were inflicted upon NARS, including its regional archives.

Due to the catastrophic budget cuts, the genealogical and historical research communities and other interested groups lobbied Congress to make the National Archives an independent federal agency – instead of being a mere subunit of the General Services Administration. The National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984 reestablished NARA as an independent federal agency effective 1 April 1985. The Regional Archives program became reinvigorated after NARA became independent and program grew again until about 1992, with some branches moving out of Federal Records Centers into downtown locations or facilities shared with other archives. The program remained fairly stable into the beginning of the 21st century before going into decline.

During the late 1980s there were hundreds of volunteers, extended weeknight and Saturday research hours, and aggressive outreach programs that were aimed at building a national constituency for NARA and were mentioned in a 1988 report and late 1980s NARA annual reports. A slogan of the time was “A national resource in a local setting.” In the years running up to the opening of the 1930 census, a contingent of volunteers at the Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Regional Archives (since closed) provided significant service to the genealogical community by compiling descriptions of the 1930 census enumeration districts that NARA made available on its website for about 10 years. Although volunteers cannot substitute for trained, experienced, and expert staff, it is fair to say that volunteer contributions to indexing projects at other NARA Regional Archives have also benefitted staff and the research community, including genealogists.

Unfortunately, further declines in NARA’s Regional Archives program occurred. Evening and Saturday hours were eliminated. Outreach to the public was reduced significantly or eliminated entirely. Closings of Regional Archives began: Pittsfield (2011), Anchorage (2014), New York (2024), and now planned closing of Chicago and San Bruno. Seattle was planned to be closed in 2020 but public backlash halted those plans. NARA’s Southern California facility at Laguna Niguel, California, was moved to Perris, California (Riverside County) in 2005.

Historical note: Over the years, NARA (and NARS) flip-flopped on the “name” of regional research facilities that are open to the public, variously calling them Regional Archives, Field Archives, Field Branches, National Archives at [name of city], and probably some other variants.

Goodbye History Hub

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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently announced that it was sunsetting the History Hub (historyhub.history.gov). NARA management has stated that eliminating the History Hub would save about $370,000 annually.

The History Hub became frozen in time on January 15, 2026, and will “remain available for reference until February 13, 2026.” NARA’s general email address for questions will continue to be inquire@nara.gov. Individual NARA units also have email addresses.

I do not speak for NARA nor any person involved in the creation or administration of the History Hub website. My thoughts are my own.

It was an idea worth trying.

It was a collaboration between NARA and the Library of Congress, which are two separate institutions with two quite different missions but who serve many of the same constituencies – genealogists, historians, and any and all researchers in need of facts. 

It was a collaboration in crowdsourcing between NARA and the researching public.  Public conversations between NARA and researchers. Public conversations between researchers. Not every question is appropriate for a public conversation on the web, but where privacy is not an issue, such conversations might serve to educate by example other researchers who have the same, or substantially the same, question.

It’s hard to discern how well the History Hub’s “education” function worked. One can count “questions asked” but counting the flip side is impossible. There is no way to count the number of questions not asked because someone learned the answer from something already posted on the History Hub. Unfortunately, it was also true that many researchers didn’t realize that their question was “the same or substantially the same” as a question already posted on the History Hub (or they didn’t look or figure out how to look for previous questions/answers).

Also, unfortunately, the History Hub led to some inefficiency arising from many researchers posting their question on the History Hub and simultaneously writing to inquire@nara or a specific NARA unit. Simultaneously submission like that was certainly wasteful of staff time and effort. At best, the duplicate question might be routed to the same staff person, who could respond internally and to the questioner that the question had already been answered in thus and such manner. At worst, the question might get routed to a different staff member who would have to reinvent the wheel, as it were, by drafting their own answer.

Materials that I authored on the History Hub will remain accessible at https://twelvekey.com/blog-posts-on-other-sites/ with links to that content on the Internet Archive. At a future date, I will make that material available in a different format.

Researcher Access to Archives 2 (College Park, Maryland) is Not Changing

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From what I have seen on FaceBook this evening, June 24, NARA added some language to the Archives 2 webpage at https://www.archives.gov/college-park that caused a great deal of consternation today. While I believe that NARA was trying to be proactive, the language in question was very poorly worded, and therefore resulted in a lot of undue anxiety and (likely) anger. The problem language has been removed, so far as I can tell. The poor language stated, in part:

“Effective July 7, 2025, the National Archives at College Park, MD, will become a restricted-access federal facility with access only for visitors with a legitimate business need. It will no longer be open to the general public….”

Most genealogists and other researchers consider themselves to be members of “the general public” so it is very easy to understand the consternation that this statement created.

I am not employed by NARA, but please understand: Doing research in records at Archives 2 is still a valid reason for any person to go to Archives 2. No change.

What was that statement all about, then? Do random people (who don’t plan on doing research) randomly find their way to Archives 2 with the idea of entering the building? It has probably has happened. (Again, mere speculation: I have no knowledge.) There are no exhibits or museum areas for people to visit at Archives 2, so there is nothing for random people to do, except eat in the cafeteria.

Breathe. Stand down from red alert.

NARA’s 2025 Genealogy Series

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The National Archives and Records Administration has announced the lineup of speakers and topics for its 2025 Genealogy Series. Presentations premiere at specific times but are then available 24/7 on YouTube. Mark your calendar now! It’s free! No registration required! This year’s schedule includes:

What’s New in the National Archives Catalog?

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NARA has reintroduced a user-friendly “What’s New in the National Archives Catalog” page at https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/whats-new. This webpage may highlight visually interesting items along with a list of:

  • Recent bulk uploads of descriptions of records
  • Recent bulk uploads of descriptions with images of records
  • Recent uploads of images to previously existing descriptions

The list shows the part of the NARA that holds the records and gives a direct link to where the records are in the Catalog. As should be expected, digital images of very large record series will usually be uploaded in increments over time (months or years), as digitization is accomplished. Digital images of very small series are normally uploaded all at once, such as the single volume series, List of Special Agents Who Collected Cotton Statistics, 1900 (National Archives Identifier 3318884).

What will you find that’s new and interesting to you?

2023 National Archives Genealogy Series

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NARA’s 2023 National Archives Genealogy Series, https://www.archives.gov/calendar/genealogy-series/2023, which begins on YouTube on May 3 and continues through June 14, will focus this year on military and civilian public service. The following presentations are scheduled to premiere:

May 3 at 1 p.m. ETWelcome and Introductions – Acting Archivist Debra Wall
May 3 at 1:05 p.m. ETCivilians at War:  Records of Participation in U.S. Military Conflicts – Claire Kluskens
May 10 at 1 p.m. ETBasic Military Records at the National Archives: Revolutionary War to 1917 – John Deeben
May 17 at 1 p.m. ETNational Archives at St. Louis: Understanding the 1973 Fire and Its Impact on Genealogical Research – Eric Kilgore
May 31 at 1 p.m. ETCivilian Conservation Corps Indian Division on the Reservation – Cody White
June 7 at 1 p.m. ETAccessing and Understanding Korean War Army Unit Records – Rachel Salyer
June 14 at 1 p.m. ETPlanning, Techniques, and Strategies for Preserving Family Collections and Stories – Sara Holmes
June 14 at 1:55 p.m. ETClosing Remarks – Chris Naylor

The presentations will be pre-recorded but the speakers will answer questions in the chat for 10 minutes at the end of the premiere. The videos will remain online on YouTube afterwards. Links to the videos and associated handouts are at NARA’s 2023 National Archives Genealogy Series.

See you online!

Updated 4 May 2023