For several years (some areas even longer), the U.S. National Archives (NARA) has been moving all or parts of Record Groups (RG) from its various locations to storage in Missouri and Kansas. These RG materials are now in high density storage, some of which is underground caves. Yes, you read that correctly.
This means we need to study the NARA website to be sure where the records we wish to research are located today. We may have researched part of a specific RG at a regional location of NARA such as Chicago or in Washington, DC, but now those records may have been moved to the jurisdiction of the NARA Kansas City location. If you had not viewed those records in person but had requested a copy of a record or file, it may have already been in the Kansas City NARA jurisdiction for many years.
Many U.S. District Court records are among those still in the process of moving. Here’s detail on a portion of those now being moved from Chicago to Kansas City:
For more information, here are some links to learn more about records you wish to consult. Not sure about the location of the records you wished to consult in person? Each NARA location has an email posted and that’s a good place to ask your question.
- https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records
- https://catalog.archives.gov/
- https://www.archives.gov/kansas-city (check the column on the right side of the screen)
- https://www.archives.gov/fort-worth/2022-fortworth-records-move
- https://www.archives.gov/research/news/2023-chicago-rg-276-move
© 2023, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.
Yes, I was very annoyed to find that the 1867 Bankruptcy Act records for Virginia had been moved to KC, BUT the indexes remain in the inaccessible-by-public transportation branch in North Philadelphia. It was bad enough that they were in Philly, but now KC. The public be damned!