NARA Opening up soon?? 🍂

     I don't know about you, but I have been held back by the closure of many archives due to this pandemic. Research has come to a halt for many genealogists. While many records have been put online, there are still records that are only available for in-person research. One repository that this is true for is the National Archives. While you can access quite a bit on their website, there are still so many records that are only available at the archives themselves. 

National Archives, St. Louis, Missouri

    But I have some good news. A glimmer of hope. I was at a World War I reenactment today at the Jefferson Barracks here in St. Louis and ran into a gentleman who works for the National Archives. I was speaking about the details I had found about my 2nd Great Uncle, William Ilg from his Burial Case File that was located at the National Archives. Another gentleman was hoping to get a copy of one of his relative's Burial Case File but said they hadn't digitized it yet. I told him that I actually went in and digitized William Ilg's file myself, but that was pre-pandemic. That's when the one gentleman that works at the Archives spoke up. 
    Once I found out he worked there, I asked him when they were going to open back up cause, you know, we are all dying to know. He said he has been delayed too because of the archives being closed. He travels to Washington DC to go to the archives out there for some of his research and even though he is an employee out here in St. Louis, he hadn't been able to have access either. 

But...

    He said they are finally being called back to work on the 18th of this month. And by the end of the year, maybe they can start letting researchers back in! Oh, how exciting!! But he said, they still have a lot of work to do to follow the CDC guidelines. So what those are going to be, I have no clue. We will have to keep our eyes out for updates.
    I just wanted to share this info with you to bring you some hope. I know many of you have had requests put on hold because of this pandemic. Hopefully, things will start picking up. I'm looking forward to getting back to the National Archives here in St. Louis.