> > One of my list members sent this email to me and asked if I would check > into this. I live in the Washington, D.C. area and have access to the > National Archives. This member knows I provide a service for performing > lookups for researchers at the National Archives, so she asked me if I > would look into this. Apparently, this email is making its rounds to > various rootsweb mailing lists with no further explanation. > > I was just told by the National Archives that there is a proposal in the > works to change the way they do business. Currently, when you request a > pension record, the Archives sends out only 10-20 pages of the record > and not the whole file. They are proposing to change this to instead of > sending out part of the file to sending copies of the whole pension > record. The average pension record is approximately 125-135 pages. The > proposal is calling for a flat rate of $40 to obtain the whole pension > file regardless of the size of the file. > > Since I'm very familiar with these records, I asked the person about the > files less than the average size of a pension record. I have ran > acrossed some pension records that where only 10-30 pages. The person > told me that the smaller files would most likely be charged the same > cost as the proposed increase for the service records. > > So yes, there is a proposal to increase the costs of obtaining records > from the National Archives, but it's due to the proposed changes of the > way they currently process requests now. > > The person who wrote the original email recommends that researchers > should get their orders in now before the price increase. After talking > to the Archives, this would only hurt the researcher not help. Up until > July 1, the Archives will continue to only send the 10-20 pages of the > pension file. After July 1, is when they will begin sending out the > whole pension record. So, in my opinion, if your going to requests > records from the Archives, then it will be better to wait until after > the increase. This will save time and money. > > Again, let me emphasize that this is only a PROPOSAL and nothing is > final as of today. Once the proposal becomes finalized, it will be > posted on the Federal Register that can be accessed from the Nara > website. > > I just thought I would make the Listowners aware of what was going on at > Nara just incase this email comes across your lists. Virginia