research

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 The notice “This user is no longer active” pops up if they are not.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.

The U.S. National Archives Preserves and Provides Access to 250 Years of U.S. History

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The National Archives is much more than the iconic Greek-revival style building situated on Pennsylvania Avenue near the National Mall.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) holds in trust for the American people the permanently valuable records of the U.S. federal government that show our shared history over the past 250 years. NARA preserves and provides access to documents about the decisions and actions of government, rights of individuals (such as citizenship), or otherwise have sufficient historical or other value to warrant continued preservation. Genealogists, military veterans, historians, lawyers, and other researchers find the records essential to their research. Information about newly digitized records in the National Archives Catalog can be found at “What’s New in the National Archives Catalog.”

NARA preserves:

  • 11.9 billion pages of historic textual (paper records);
  • 10 million maps, charts, and architectural and engineering drawings;
  • 40 million still photographs, digital images, filmstrips, and other graphics;
  • 40 million aerial photographs dating to the 1930s;
  • 448 million feet of motion picture film;
  • 992,000 video and sound recordings; and
  • 837 terabytes of electronic data

The National Archives does this at different and necessary facilities that each hold unique records found nowhere else:

NARA has a staff of about 2,800 persons who are dedicated to serving the American people. Staff who work with the public develop expertise in specific bodies of records. Other staff have technical experience and knowledge that supports our mission to preserve the records and provide the public access to them. Learn more by reading a few employee profiles.

Congress established the National Archives nearly 90 years ago by a law known as the “The National Archives Act of 1934” that was signed on June 19, 1934. Since April 1, 1985, NARA has been governed by the “The National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984” that was signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Come explore the records!

Butter Makers and More: The 1929 Census of Manufacturers

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The Great Depression began with the stock market crash of 29 October 1929.

The 1929 Census of Manufacturers may help local historians learn about economic activity in the community at the cusp of the Great Depression. Genealogists may learn about a business owned by an ancestor. Alternatively, if an ancestor was known to have been a wage earner employed by a specific firm, the census schedules may provide insight into hours worked and wages earned.

The purpose of the census was to obtain useful statistical information about industry size, production, employment, power equipment, and fuel consumption. The data was collected partly by mail and partly by paid canvassers. Preliminary results of the data were published in press releases, and subsequently with more substantive analysis and detail in nearly three hundred reports issued in 1930 and 1931. The census included only manufacturing establishments that made products worth five thousand dollars or more.

The U.S. National Archives has placed some of these records online as “Schedules of the Census of Manufacturers, 1929-1929.” As of December 2017, images of schedules for Industries 101 (Beverages) through 518 (Printing and Publishing) are available. Separate digital files have been uploaded for each industry code by state. Within each state, the schedules are arranged in alphabetical order by county. Additional schedules will be placed online in the future.

Read “Butter Makers and More: Revelations of the 1929 Census of Manufacturers” to see and read examples of information recorded about two facilities in Ashtabula County, Ohio, and Bourbon County, Kansas, that made milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream.

More information on the 1929 manufacturing census is available on the Census Bureau website. “General Explanations” provides good background information. Detailed reports and results are at “Census of Population and Housing.” On that page, click on “Special Collections and Reports” (near the bottom of the page), then click on “Manufacturers,” and then choose the report of interest.

The photo of the butter vendor, ca. 1917, is from United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 456, February 5, 1917, p. 8.

Records of Claims Against the Federal Government

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The idea of looking for ancestors in records of claims against the U.S. Federal Government (or against foreign governments) would be an afterthought, at best, for most researchers. Yet, they can contain valuable data. Here’s a few examples:

French Spoliation Claims. These were claims presented by U.S. citizens against France, Spain, and Holland for vessels and cargo taken by privateers prior to September 30, 1800, and condemned at ports controlled by those countries. There are records of these claims in the National Archives of the United States. The long and convoluted general history of those claims, along with guidance on the research process, is found in Angie Spicer VanDereedt’s 1991 Prologue article, “Do We Have Any Records Relating to French Spoliation Claims?

Claims Involving Various Foreign Countries, 19th-20th centuries, in a variety of contexts. For brief introductory information, see Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitrations.

Southern Claims Commission approved, barred, and disallowed claims. From March 1871 to March 1873, over 22,000 Southerners filed claims alleging they had been loyal Unionists during the Civil War and had furnished to, or had materials taken by, the Union Army or Navy. These are very useful to family historians because the paper trail created by the claimants and various witnesses included relatives, neighbors, friends, former slaves, and free people of color. Their testimony provides a wealth of information about individuals living in the South during the Civil War. Get started with these records by learning more about them in the guide to “Researching Southern Claims Commission Records” on the Saint Louis County (Missouri) Public Library website.

Civil War Claims against the Office of the Quartermaster General.  The Quartermaster General (QMG) and his staff were responsible for procuring all the equipment and supplies the Army needed. Generally, claims arise when mistakes happen of one kind or another. In 1901, a clerk in the office of the QMG compiled a list of 19 different claims boards that had been created during the Civil War which gave a brief description of the location, purpose, composition, and authority of each board. You can read through that 9 page list here.

One of those 19 boards was the Cairo Claims Commission. By direction of President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton appointed a commission to examine and report upon all unsettled claims against the War Department at Cairo, Illinois, that originated before April 1, 1862, due to allegations of fraud and corruption in the Quartermaster Department there. Stephen B. Logan, Charles A. Dana, and George S. Boutwell were first appointed, but Shelby M. Cullom soon replaced Mr. Logan, who resigned due to ill health. The commission examined 1,696 claims totaling $599,219.36, and approved and certified for payment $451,105.80. Most of the claims rejected were for losses suffered in active operations of the army, either from misconduct soldiers or from requisitions made by officers who failed to give receipts and certificates to the claimants, who thus had insufficient evidence to support their claims. Some claims were rejected due to proof of disloyalty by the claimant. Claims by owners of vacant lots and by the Cairo city trustees for use of city land were disallowed. A small percentage of the claims were rejected due to fraud. Charles A. Dana discusses the Commission in his biography, Recollections of the Civil War: With the Leaders at Washington and in the Field in the Sixties (New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1913), pp. 11-14.

The Proceedings of the Claims Board Meeting at Cairo, Illinois, are online. Following the meeting minutes, they include a roughly alphabetical list of claimants that gives the voucher number, date, name of claimant, name of officer who had approved the expense, type of article or claim, amount of claim proffered, and the amount allowed by the claims board.

In conclusion…. As always, finding records in the National Archives about an ancestor requires that person to have had some kind of interaction with the Federal Government. Claims against the government are one possibility, but it will take time and effort by the researcher to locate that information.

Finding Nemo, Finding Amelia, Finding Your Family

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In Finding Nemo, Marlin has many adventures in the big, wide ocean during his journey to rescue his son, Nemo, who was captured by a diver. The journey to his destination is neither straightforward or simple.

July 2017 marks the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan during their attempt to fly around the world. The public’s fascination with the mystery of their disappearance continues to spur researchers to explore the vast ocean of archival records for new clues, as well as to revisit records previously viewed by themselves or others for fresh perspectives.

Millions of people, including, hopefully, readers of this blog, search archival records for evidence of their ancestors’ lives. It’s a big ocean of records that’s getting easier to swim through. FamilySearch previously announced plans to digitize all its microfilm. Numerous commercial genealogy sites vie for your business. Publicly-funded libraries and archives continually add to their online records collections also. It pays to go back and revisit online collections for “new” information.

Have you tried the National Archives Catalog recently? There’s both a “basic” search and an “advanced search” function. Try them both. What will you find? There are now some 66 million entries in the National Archives Catalog, according to my best understanding of it. Those entries can be descriptions of governmental entities, record series, files from within those record entries, individual items, and digital images of actual records. There are also many bibliographic entries, such as persons, places, and subjects.

The journey to learning your ancestors’ life stories is often neither straightforward or simple. Like Marlin, you can’t stop in the middle of the ocean. Keep swimming, and keep searching in new places. Revisit what you’ve already found for new understandings.