records preservation

NARA in the News…. and What You Can Do

clairekluskens Federal Employees, federal funding, Finding Records at NARA, genealogy, NARA, National Archives and Records Administration, records access, records preservation , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been in the news quite a bit lately.

Support for “Save Our National Archives” – San Bruno and Chicago Regions

On 24 August 2026, Representative Kevin Mullin held a press conference about NARA’s proposed closure of its San Bruno, California, facility. In addition, 37 Members of Congress, including several from the Midwest, signed a joint letter to NARA about their concerns that closure of the facility would result in an undue burden (restriction) to public access to the records, potentially result in loss of dedicated knowledgeable public servants who have provided reference services on these records, and risk damage or even destruction to the records. Meanwhile, in an undated 2026 post entitled “Researcher Updates” NARA outlined where it plans to move records from the San Bruno and Chicago Regional Archives.

What can you do? Email (or better yet, write and call) your Congressman and Senators about your opposition to NARA closing public research facilities at San Bruno and Chicago. Find information and talking points here: https://www.saveournationalarchives.org/take-action.

Confirmation of Bradford P. Wilson as 12th Archivist of the United States

On 7 August 2026, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Bradford P. Wilson to be the 12th Archivist of the United States (AOTUS). On 21 August 2026, AOTUS Wilson sent the following message to NARA employees:

Greetings to all. As you may have heard, I was nominated by President Donald J. Trump and am now sworn in as the 12th Archivist of the United States. Though I am not a stranger to Senate-confirmed positions, I am especially honored and humbled by this appointment. As with the institutions and programs I have been fortunate to lead, I shall be laser-focused on serving the governing mission of NARA. Put simply, NARA’s mission is to serve the American people as our nation’s record keepers. The great historian, David McCullough, referred to the collected records of the National Archives as “one of the wonders of our country, the richest, most enthralling documentation we have as a nation of who we are, what we have achieved, our adventures, and what we stand for.” As such, it is imperative that those records be made available to the American people, to whom they belong. Acquisition, preservation, and organization of our nation’s records, so as to provide access to the American public, researchers, and our government, are the heart of NARA’s activities.

And your talents, experience, expertise, and commitment to your craft are the reason that Americans continue to have affection for the place of the National Archives in American government and culture. I know that our agency is beset with great challenges in achieving its goals. That should only add to our sense of common purpose and inspire us to do our very best, together, to meet those challenges.

I’ll spare you my thoughts on leadership, which I’ll daily attempt to illustrate by my actions. I’d rather begin by learning about the work you do and its relation to the statutory mission of NARA, which by law we must take as our guide. I look forward to working with you to move NARA to a new level of excellence.

Sincerely,
Bradford Wilson

It’s a reasonable sounding statement of support for preservation and access to federal records, but, as the saying goes, the proof will be in the pudding. The statutory missions of agencies are never spelled out in granular detail in Acts of Congress. See, for example, the National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-497). Additional guidance is given by federal laws applicable to all or most federal agencies as well as duly promulgated federal regulations, such as those for NARA, or applicable to all or most federal agencies. What is the concept for moving NARA to “a new level of excellence”?

What can you do? Pay attention to NARA press releases and social media posts from reputable sources, such as APG (https://www.facebook.com/AssociationofProfessionalGenealogists), NGS (https://www.facebook.com/ngsgenealogy), and others. 

NARA Proposal to Destroy Federal Civilian Official Personnel Files after 65 Years

On 10 July 2026, NARA posted a proposed change in the retention period for federal civilian employee Official Personnel Folders (OPFs) – posted on Regulations.gov as DAA-GRS-2026-0001 General Records Schedules National Archives and Records Administration General Records Schedule 2-2 – Employee Management Records Revision) (https://www.regulations.gov/document/NARA-26-0331-0008). Unfortunately, the public comment period ended 24 August 2026.

Federal civilian Official Personnel Folders (OPFs) can contain valuable genealogical information about a person’s government employment. Today, many OPFs for employees who left federal service before 1952 are archived at NARA. Later files generally remain under OPM control and are much harder to access. The 1952 cutoff was created for administrative purposes, not because the records on either side of that date have different historical value.

In 2025, NARA proposed making OPFs for employees separated through 31 December 1973 permanent records, but this schedule has apparently not yet been approved. The National Genealogical Society and the Records Preservation and Access Coalition (RPAC) support that proposal and call on NARA to sign that record schedule. RPAC seeks to:

• Preserve pre-1974 OPFs permanently.

• Make all employment years consistent with pre-1974 policy.

• Replace the arbitrary 1952 access cutoff with a rolling transfer of older civilian personnel files to NARA.

This is simple: federal civilian personnel files should become more accessible as they age—not disappear.

What can you do? Although the public comment period is over, the fight to preserve these records will not end. Email (or better yet, write and call) your Congressman and Senators about your opposition to NARA destroying federal civilian Official Personnel Files. Tell Congress that OPFs dated after 1952 have as much historical value as earlier dated records. Tell Congress why these records are meaningful to you. 

“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)

clairekluskens Finding Records at NARA, NARA, National Archives and Records Administration, records access, records preservation , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

NGS 2026 Family History Conference

clairekluskens African-American Genealogy and History, American Civil War (1861-65), census, Compiled Genealogy, genealogy, immigration, land records, law, law / legal research, maps, Modern Military Records, NARA, Native Americans, naturalization, records access, records preservation, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, women, World War I, World War II , , , , ,

It’s time to register for the National Genealogical Society’s 2026 Family History Conference at Fort Wayne, Indiana, May 27-30, 2026. With the theme of “America at 250” the conference features a wide range of speakers and topics that will help shine a light on the stories, communities, and research strategies that help us understand our nation’s past and as well as preserve our family histories for the future.

The added bonus is that Fort Wayne is the home of the incomparable Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center which has one of the largest research collections available, incorporating records from around the world.

See you in Fort Wayne!

Closed for Now, But Absolutely Essential

clairekluskens Federal Employees, federal funding, HARPPing on History, NARA, records access, records preservation , , , , , , , , ,

Last week I had great pleasure doing several hours of research in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. My research took me into specialized War of 1812 and Civil War records that are not digitized – and that are not on anyone’s radar to digitize anytime soon – as there are over 11 billion textual pages that have not yet been digitized and there must be priorities for a gargantuan task like that.

Yesterday, October 1, 2025, the federal government “shut down” and will remain shut down until the President and Congress agree to funding for government agencies for Fiscal Year 2026, which began on October 1. This is the 11th time since 1980 that a shutdown involved furloughs of federal employees. This is no way to run a modern first world country. We can do better.

During a “shutdown” only so-called “essential” employees are allowed and required to work. All others are deemed “nonessential” for the purposes of the shutdown.

What does a shutdown mean for the National Archives and Records Administration? From my perspective, it means that there are only a FEW people who are allowed and required to work: (1) security personnel who maintain the security of the buildings, (2) building personnel who maintain and monitor HVAC and similar systems, and (3) limited numbers of senior management personnel. Those are the types of people deemed “essential.” Obviously, those persons are not doing archival work for you. They are not answering your emails, retrieving records, staffing the research rooms, preparing records for digitization, or digitizing records. Nope, they’re just “keeping the lights” on, so to speak.

Let’s be real. All the people who are deemed “nonessential” for the purposes of the shutdown are, in fact, absolutely essential to the mission of NARA. They are the ones who do the real archival work serving the American people, from maintaining and enhancing computer systems, adding information (descriptions) and digital images into the National Archives Catalog, answering your questions, retrieving (later refiling) records from storage areas so that researchers can view them in research rooms, staffing research rooms, performing document conservation (repairs), creating museum exhibits, and a myriad of other necessary tasks. These employees are dedicated, hard-working people that would rather be at the office working for you than sitting at home waiting for the “shutdown” to end.

The shutdown means that:

(1) No one can visit the Charters of Freedom – Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights – and other exhibits in the National Archives Museum.

(2) No one can do research in person at the National Archives Building in Washington DC, the National Archives at College Park (Maryland), or National Archives field archives at Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Riverside (California), San Francisco, Seattle, or Saint Louis.

(3) No one can visit the presidential museums of the modern presidents – Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, Clinton, or G. W. Bush.

(4) No one can do research at the presidential libraries of the modern presidents – Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, Clinton, G. W. Bush, or request access to undigitized records from the digital presidential libraries of Obama, Trump, or Biden.

(5) Your questions – sent by email, snail mail, telephone, or fax – will not be answered until the shutdown is over.

The full staff of the National Archives and Records Administration provides essential services to the American people. In a democracy, records belong to the people, and for more than 90 years, NARA has preserved and provided access to the records of the federal government of the United States of America. Records help us claim our rights and entitlements, hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, and document our history as a nation. In short, NARA ensures continuing access to the essential documentation of the rights of American citizens and the actions of their government. NARA holds in trust for the public the records of ordinary citizens—for example, military records of the brave men and women who have fought for our country, naturalization records of the immigrants whose dreams have shaped our nation, and even the canceled check from the purchase of Alaska. Learn more at “About the National Archives of the United States.”

The American people deserve to have a fully-funded, fully-staffed National Archives and Records Administration. Learn more at fundNARA.com and join the conversation at the webinar, “Fund America’s Stories: Advocacy and the National Archives” on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at 3 pm ET.

HARPPing on History

clairekluskens federal funding, genealogy, HARPPing on History, NARA, National Archives and Records Administration, records access, records preservation , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

HARPPing on History is the official Substack (blog) of the Historical Archives and Preservation Project (HARP), which is an initiative led by the Organization of American Historians to ensure that U.S. history remains accessible, evidence-based, and accurate. I strongly invite all genealogists and persons interested in U.S. history to subscribe to it.

This week, professional genealogist Renée K. Carl, wrote an insightful article, “With NARA Funding Cuts, Access to America’s Memory is on the Chopping Block,” that I strongly suggest you read. NARA has been underfunded for decades. Meanwhile, the deluge of electronic and paper records continues – but the proposed budget for federal fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026) includes a 10 percent overall cut and a staggering 33 percent cut to funding for electronic records programs. So…. what does that mean? It’s worse than you think. Funding for digital assets would plummet to 56 percent less than it was 20 YEARS ago – in fiscal year 2007. It also means that critical work needed on 250 years worth of paper records, such as preservation actions, description, preparation for digitization, and digitization, will slow to a crawl.

Did you know that a only a little over 3 percent of the 12 billion (and growing) estimated textual (paper) pages at NARA are digitized? NARA cannot do “more with less.” No one can do “more with less.” NARA can only do less with less funding.

Learn more and join the conversation in the free webinar, Fund America’s Stories–Advocacy and the National Archives, on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at 3:00 ET, which will explore the vital role of the National Archives and Records Administration in preserving federal records and protecting access to America’s stories, learn about its origins, the Federal Records Act, the impact of proposed budget cuts, and how you can advocate for NARA’s future.