RESEARCH ROOM hours at NARA to change

Press Release

March 11, 2013

Reduction of Public Hours at National Archives Facilities in the Washington, DC Area

Washington, DC…Effective Friday, March 15,  2013, the National Archives will reduce public hours at two locations in the Washington, DC, area as part of actions it is taking due to sequestration.   These reductions will affect exhibit spaces and research rooms at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and research rooms at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.

Our exhibit spaces at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, are normally open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week. In the past, we offered extended hours from March 15 through Labor Day, when we stayed open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.  We will no longer offer these extended hours.  The exhibit spaces at the National Archives Building in Washington DC will remain open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., seven days a week, year round. Please note that the last admission will be at 5:00 p.m.

Our research rooms at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, are normally open to researchers six days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. three days a week (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). We will no longer offer these extended hours.  The research rooms will remain open to researchers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, year round.

In announcing the reduced hours, David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States said:  “We don’t take these reductions lightly.  We are working hard to achieve our mission and minimize disruptions to the services we provide to the public.”

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 For press information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (202) 357-5300.

The inevitable Confederate

Looks like I have finally confirmed what I had always known in the back of mind to be true : there is a Confederate in the attic (well, I don't have an attic, but I guess he's in the closet). So, lets bring him out and see what he did.  If my assumptions are correct about my grandmother's (Vivian Dabney) family being from Wayne County, Kentucky - then this record that I found on fold3.com is pretty clear evidence.  Looks like Robert J, Dabney (if genealogical calculations are correct, is my great-great-great-grandather), donated the produce of his farm to the Confederate Army in 1863.  Willingly given or not, they took the forage and he received a receipt.

So, although its not the most damning evidence in the world, it is the reality of family-research in America.  If you have an older American lineage, there is a good chance you have a Confederate ancestor.  It is nothing to be ashamed of, but needs to be explored carefully.  The last two generations of my immediate family all come from Missouri, which is truly one of the gateways of America migration, a place that drew people from all over the world to that central point on the Mississippi.  So, my Northern family roots and Southern family roots all met in Missouri sometime in the 1880s, and eventually ended up in St. Louis by the middle of the 20th century.

Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms, 1861-65