NARA Announces New File Ordering Fees Effective Oct. 1, 2007

For several months, we’ve known that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was going to raise the fees for orders of records. When plans were first announced for increases, genealogists were very upset at the high proposed prices. Now, we know that when the new fees go into effect, they won’t be as bad as originally proposed.

For example, effective Oct. 1, NARA will charge $75 for a Civil War pension file of up to 100 pages, plus $.65 per additional page (for longer files, staff will contact the requestor with a price quote before filling the order). NARA will charge $50 for pre-Civil War pension files regardless of page count, and $.75 per page to copy other records.

While still a steep increase from the current $37 for a Civil War pension file, these fees are less than the $125 and $60 NARA originally proposed for Civil War and pre-Civil War pensions, respectively.

A word to the wise, if you had good intentions of ordering ancestor files from NARA, save some money by doing so before October 1.

See the NARA website (www.nara.gov) for ordering instructions.