Thursday, April 9, 2009

NARA Laguna Niguel to Close

I had a very distressing email from Joel Weintraub (whom I have blogged about several times when he has provided excellent programs at San Diego area societies) today. It reads:

"Randy, I'm going to send the below to both you and to JewishGen..... JewishGen because I am a regular member and know that southern California researchers read the daily messages, and you because you are a southern California based genealogist and will get out the word.

"As you know, I volunteer at NARA Laguna Niguel. I have done so for 8 or so years.The staff here was told a few weeks ago that NARA-Pacific Region (Laguna Niguel)
http://www.archives.gov/pacific/archives/laguna/finding-aids/holdings.htmlwill be moved to Perris, California. They will join a NARA facility that presently specializes only with federal courts.

"See:
http://www.archives.gov/pacific/riverside/for the Perris facility.It's not clear when the move will happen or be completed, or that it actually will occur, but today staff was measuring tables and it does look like a firm decision has been made. I wouldn't be surprised if the Laguna Niguel facility ceases operation no later than summer 2010.

"This is clearly a cost-cutting move. The new location will open up the Inland Empire to access a NARA branch, and may not add that much commute time to get to the Pacific Region branch from San Diego or Los Angeles Counties, but will negatively impact Orange County residents (and my own ability to volunteer).

"Joel Weintraub
Dana Point, CA
http://members.cox.net/census1940/ "

This is disappointing to me - NARA Laguna Niguel was very easy for San Diego area residents to get to - we missed almost all of the heavy morning traffic if we went on a weekday. It will be a much longer trip to Perris for anybody along the San Diego County coast.

NARA Laguna Niguel not only had the National Archives material but also had free access to several commercial subscriptions, including Ancestry.com and Footnote.com, that the local Orange County genealogy community was able to use.

I hope that Joel will have his 1940 census ED indexing work done by the time of the final move.

My thanks to Joel for the news. The word is out!

1 comment:

Carol - Genealogy and History said...

Sad news indeed Randy. Your profile picture did give me a giggle though!