Events in the Northwest Suburbs

Are you looking for the list of genealogy events in the suburbs? This feature of the blog is on hiatus. Check back for other interesting articles. Thanks for stopping by and good luck in your genealogy searches.

Jacquie

Visiting National Archives in DC? - Bring a Quarter!

My husband and I had business in Washington DC. Of course, one of my first stops was at the Archive building for Civil War pensions records. While their website gives good information about procedures and rules, I learned a couple of things that might be helpful to future visitors. I can’t stress enough to read the website first before you go, but here are some tips. 

1)     While the library opens at 8:45 a.m. the lobby doors open at 8:30 a.m. and you can get a lot done in those 15 minutes. To your right as you enter, you will go through the same security you follow at an airport.

2)     Next you’ll go to the center desk, show an ID, and the guard will fill out a form, and ask you to sign. You’ll be given a gold “Temporary Researcher Pass” to clip on. There is plenty of lobby seating, and a large area to stand if the library has not opened. If opened, you go straight in, walking to the right of the desk.

3)     You  walk to the room directly behind the center lobby desk where there is an information desk with attendants. You may have to wait in line. If this is your first time, they will direct you to a computer on your left to see a five-minute PowerPoint on using the library. There are four computers for this, in the corner, not those near the information desk.

4)     After you’ve seen the instructions, go through a glass door on your left to a desk. You’ll be asked to fill out a short form, and show ID. They will take your photo and issue you a Research Card, which is like a plastic library card. It’s good for one year. (If you have an expired Research Card, bring it with you. It will be updated and save you time.) Now go back to the information desk and scan this card.

5)     In this first-floor room, coats, backpacks, purses, hats, and pens were allowed. I travelled light, but still had some restricted items with me, including a small purse. My husband had a hat.

6)     There is a bank of eight computers where you may use ancestry or fold3 to find information. Fill out the half page record request forms available in duplicate on the computer table. It’s best to fill out in pen, then bring to the information desk where the forms will be reviewed and signed. Then place them in a small wooden box. Records will be pulled according to the schedule listed on the website, starting at 9:30 AM.

7)     You may place any prohibited items in the lockers located through the glass doors to the left of the information desk, past the desk where you received the Research Card, at the end of the hallway. You will need a quarter for this! There are no change machines. This is much like other libraries, where the quarter is returned when you open the locker with your key. These are roomy lockers and there are plenty. The bathrooms are in this hallway.

8)     Next take the elevators outside the room upstairs to room 203, where all the personal items on the list are prohibited. I had a couple of pieces of paper which were stamped. I could not carry a sweater, but I wore one. Pockets were not examined. You will be carefully inspected, and you’ll scan your Research Card. For us, within about 30 minutes after the pull time, the records were available. As you walk into the room, the records are at a small tall desk on the very far left wall. You’ll walk past a line of tables in a beautiful room filled with books from floor to ceiling. The desk clerk will ask you to sign the pink page to take one envelope. There is a clock on the left side of the desk for the time. You will use one of the room’s tables.

9)     My husband and I each had an envelope. We sat next to each other with a four-inch tall glass partition between us. He was not allowed to touch mine, and I was not allowed to touch his. We both viewed the records, but he turned “his” pages for me, and I turned “mine” for him. These are original records, and you must keep them in exactly the same order. They watch you very carefully.

10)  There are plenty of pencils and paper next to the “pull” desk for taking notes. You may take photos with your cellphone, without flash. The light is good. Or you may choose to go through a 20-minute process to copy pages on their copiers. We used our phones.

11)  The veteran’s pension file is in the same envelope as the widow’s pension. Write down the numbers for both when you order. This is great, you get two for one! I ordered files, I’d previously received by mail from the NARA but found more papers, with very interesting family information, not included in the mailed information.

12)  If you leave the building, but plan to return the same day, let the guard at the exit table know. There’s a short cut for returning researchers.

13)  If you have time, you may want to get your research card, and order your paperwork the night before, to save time in the morning. We did this for the second day (yes, I geeked out and spent two days there). We went directly to the second floor to look at records. Once you’ve ordered the record to be pulled, it is in room 203 for three days, unless you specifically sign for its return.

14)  The workers including the guards are very nice and extremely helpful, but they are strict about any rules.

I hope this helps any visitor navigate the NARA.  I was told that NARA II was very similar.  Hope you find interesting information on your trip to the NARA!