A couple of weeks ago, I griped about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's utterly lacking responsiveness to records research. I devoted a day this week to rehashing my spat with a Department of Commerce bureaucrat.
I owe it to our government to take the positive side now and then.
The National Archives responded to a request for my great grandfather's Spanish-American War veterans' records in amazingly fast time.
Andrew Alfred Baker was my German-born great grandfather who was a member of the Regimental Band of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He's been a Saturday topic before too.
His record verified that service, and more. I found that he was charged with AWOL one time for not being at a rollcall. He was later acquitted.
I also found a next of kin notice record showing Jacob Baker of Cleveland. He was probably his brother, but I have yet to determine the relation for sure.
The speediness and the adaptation to technology are a great credit to the work of the National Archives.
The National Archives are an invaluable resource. Your Grandaunt Jane spent days in the regional affiliate of the National Archives researching our family. Of course this was prior to the digitalization of the most important records. Historical and genealogical research would be impossible with national, state and local archives.
ReplyDeleteI hope that in these tough economic times that we value our future enough to save our past.