At 10:42 AM 4/11/00 -0400, robmarth wrote: >Hi Folks, >I just want to thank everyone who has e-mailed info on NARA for WWI records. >Leslie Albright died at the VA hospital in Batavia, NY in 1978. I sent them >a letter (w/SASE) requesting any info on the family or anything else. This >was back in 1998. I never received a reply. Has anyone gone this route and >what were their dealings with Veterans hospitals? I have not dealt with VA hospitals, but did try to get information out of the VA about a pension file. My great-grandfather had a Civil War pension when he died in 1934. Most civil war pension files were transferred to the National Archives about 1932 if I recall correctly. Since his file was still active, it remained with the VA and is still in their possession per a records storage agreement they have with the Archives. However, unlike the Archives, their mind set is not focused on old records. They are too busy providing services to the living. It took me quite a while to even get someone there to acknowledge what I was talking about. After two or three letters and about two years, I finally got a copy of the pension file. One approach you might try which may yield faster results is to request the information under the Freedom of Information Act. However, because the death was relatively recent, genealogically speaking, the privacy acts may take precedence. I also would try directing the request to the VA Regional Office for the area which contained the hospital (see http://www.va.gov/ ) . They would have a better understanding of records retention and storage issues. The hospitals almost certainly send the records off to be archived after some number of years and probably don't know what you are talking about. John ********** John Clavin | jjc@bga.com | Austin, TX **********