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| ==Genealogy/Family History in Russian Archives== | | ==About Archives== |
| *Neither the Federal Archival Agency nor many Russian archives are staffed or equipped to answer extensive genealogical inquires of a "family history" nature.
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| *Unless the exact archive involved has already been identified, family-history inquiries should normally be addressed directly to more specialized genealogical services, many of which are listed and described in the Resource Guide on the website of the Federation of East European Family History Societies ([http://www.feefhs.org/ http://www.feefhs.org] ). Genealogical inquiries and family history in Russia can be performed reliably through Russian Society of Historians and Archivists (ROIA) (e-mail: [mailto:roia@rusarchives.ru roia@rusarchives.ru] ; fax: [7-095] 245-09-45) in Moscow. Information and appropriate questionnaires are available at the "Arkhivy Rossii" website.
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| ==Archives==
| | Archives collect and preserve original documents created by organizations such as churches or governments. Libraries generally collect published books, maps, microfilms, and other sources. This section describes major repositories of Russia’s genealogical and historical records. When you need the address of an archive or library, look in this section. |
| *There are many government archives in Russia as well as in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. These archives contain a rich assortment of materials for the genealogist tracing families in the Russian Empire.
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| *Information in the archives can now be accessed by contacting the archives directly or by contacting a commercial research service such as [http://www.feefhs.org/members/blitz/frgblitz.html BLITZ]. However, unlike research in many western countries, it is not possible to simply request a birth, marriage or death certificate. Archives in the former Soviet Union were not organized to respond to this kind of straight forward request or to provide such information or documentation.
| | There are many government archives in Russia as well as in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. These archives contain a rich assortment of materials for the genealogist tracing families in the Russian Empire. However, the archives do not communicate with each other and information on similar subjects is not coordinated. Each archive will provide specific information on subjects sought if they are found within their archive. They may recommend another archive if they are unable to provide such a work. |
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| | Information in the archives can now be accessed by contacting the archives directly or by contacting a commercial research service such as [http://www.feefhs.org/members/blitz/frgblitz.html BLITZ]. However, unlike research in many western countries, it is not possible to simply request a birth, marriage or death certificate. Archives in the former Soviet Union were not organized to respond to this kind of straight forward request or to provide such information or documentation. |
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| In general, the archives in the former Soviet Union are poorly organized, poorly indexed and in poor physical condition. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the budgets from the central government for maintaining the many archives have been drastically cut or are non-existent. Archives must now pay for their own electricity, heating and fire protection services. | | In general, the archives in the former Soviet Union are poorly organized, poorly indexed and in poor physical condition. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the budgets from the central government for maintaining the many archives have been drastically cut or are non-existent. Archives must now pay for their own electricity, heating and fire protection services. |
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| All of the archives listed are described in more detail with a full bibliography of their published guides and finding aids in the ABB printed directory, Archives of Russia: A Directory and Bibliography Guide to Holdings in Moscow and St Petersburg. (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000). The English edition is considerably expanded from the Russian-language edition, Arkhivy Rossii (Moscow, 1997). | | All of the archives listed are described in more detail with a full bibliography of their published guides and finding aids in the ABB printed directory, Archives of Russia: A Directory and Bibliography Guide to Holdings in Moscow and St Petersburg. (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000). The English edition is considerably expanded from the Russian-language edition, Arkhivy Rossii (Moscow, 1997). |
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| ==Archival Terminology==
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| During the period of Soviet rule, archives centralized and preserved a vast holding of church and vital records dating from 1721-1917. Access had now been granted to this material though the degree of availability varies from archive to archive.
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| In the archives of the former Soviet Union, material is filed by record group - '''fond'''. A record group contains the records of a specific organization, portion of an organization, or individual. Archives also create collections as opposed to record groups, in which records of different organizations or individuals are filed together on some logical or thematic basis. Thus, in some archives, vital records of different religions can be filed together.
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| A single volume, file, or even a single sheet of paper is an item - '''delo'''. Each item is given a title based upon the record type and contents. Items are usually filed chronologically by the ear liest year of information found in that item. Within a particular year, the items are supposed to be filed by degree of significance.
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| An inventory - '''opis''' is a list of items in a record group or collection. While filing by record group reflects authorship, description by inventory reflects content, equivalent to table of contents in a book. The inventory identifies title assigned to each item, the sequential number, and information on inclusive dates and number of pages. The inventory is the key to finding records in an archive. It usually is not available outside of the archive. There may be more than one inventory for a record group. These sometimes reflect different types of material or different accessions of records for the same institution. The decision as to what to include in an inventory will vary significantly from archive to archive.
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| The result of the above practices is that each item in an archive is defined by three numbers: '''fond, opis''', and '''delo'''. The number at each level is simply a sequential number. Later insertions are given an alpha designation after the number such as 21a, 21b, etc.
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| ''akt'' official document, act<br>''aktovaia kniga'' register<br>''delo'' basic classification unit<br>''edinitsa khraneniia'' storage unit, smallest unit of a fond<br>''fond'' basic organizational grouping in an archive<br>''gramota'' a deed, charter, official document<br>''list'' folio, leaf, sheet<br>''opis’'' subunit of a fond, series; or finding aid<br>''putevoditel’'' finding aid to an archive<br>''rukopis’'' manuscript<br>''sbornik'' collection (misc.)<br>''sobranie'' collection (artificial)
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| ==Genealogy/Family History==
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| Regretfully, IISH ([http://www.iisg.nl/ International Institute of Social History], Amsterdam) is not able to handle family history and/or related genealogical inquiries. Furthermore, it should be noted, that neither the Federal Archival Agency nor many Russian archives are staffed or equipped to answer extensive genealogical inquires of a "family history" nature, although some archives have been improving services in this regard. Unless the exact archive involved has already been identified, family-history inquiries should normally be addressed directly to more specialized genealogical services, many of which are listed and described in the Resource Guide on the website of the Federation of East European Family History Societies ([http://www.feefhs.org/ http://www.feefhs.org] ). Genealogical inquiries and family history in Russia can be performed reliably through Russian Society of Historians and Archivists (ROIA) (e-mail: [mailto:roia@rusarchives.ru roia@rusarchives.ru] ; fax: [7-095] 245-09-45) in Moscow. Information and appropriate questionnaires are available at the "Arkhivy Rossii" website.
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| =='''Writing to an Archive'''==
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| Do not assume that archive employees will be able to speak and/or read English. As a general rule of thumb, you should write your request in the language of the archivist - for example, if you are writing to an archive in Russia, you should write your request in Russian. If you are writing to an archive in Ukraine, you should write your request in Ukrainian or Russian (or both!). You can include a copy of your letter in English below the Russian translation. If the archive writes back in English, you may correspond in English.
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| You do not have to speak Russian in order to write to a Russian archive. In general, online translators such as [https://translate.google.com/ Google Translate] can be useful as long as you use short, simple, and concise sentences. Complex ideas or flowery words can be difficult to translate. You may want to follow the general outline below and fill in the blanks with information specific to your situation. Some of the blanks require you to put words in genitive or prepositional case. To learn more about this, please see the [[Russia "How to" Guides|Reading Russian Documents: Deciphering the Handwriting and Understanding the Grammar]] "How to" guide.
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| |+Archive Research Request Template
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| !Russian
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| !English
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| |'''[1] Директору архива''' [Archive Initials]
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| '''[2] От''' [Your full name and contact information]
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| '''[3] Заявление'''
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| '''[4] Добрый день!'''
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| '''[5] Прошу Вас мне помочь в генеалогическом поиске.'''
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| '''[6] Мой''' [relationship* - grandmother, great-grandfather, etc.],
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| '''[7]''' [full name of ancestor in Russian], [religion (in genitive case)] '''вероисповедания,'''
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| '''[8a] ''родился''''' (if your ancestor was female, use '''''родилась''''' instead)
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| '''[8b] ''женился''''' (if your ancestor was female, use '''''вышла замуж''''' instead) [name of spouse (in genitive case)]
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| '''[8c] ''умер''''' (if your ancestor was female, use '''''умерла''''' instead)
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| '''[9] в''' [name of parish/village/colony (include any known alternate names) (in prepositional case)],
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| '''[10] в''' [date of birth, marriage, or death],
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| '''[11] Прошу, используя имеющиеся в Вашем архиве метрические книги''' '''в'''
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| [fond and opis number if available, and/or any other additional information],
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| '''сообщить мне сведения'''
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| '''[12a] о ''его''''' (if your ancestor was female, use '''''её''''' instead) '''родителях''' (parents) ''or'' '''рождении''' (birth).
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| '''[12b] o ''его''''' (if your ancestor was female, use '''''её''''' instead) '''браке.'''
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| '''[12c] o ''его''''' (if your ancestor was female, use '''''её''''' instead) '''смерти.'''
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| '''[13] Пожалуйста, пришлите мне копии имеющихся документов.'''
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| '''[14a]''' (if the archive ''has'' posted their research and copy fees online, and you are aware of the cost, include a statement of the guarantee of payment. Many archives will not start fulfilling requests without this guarantee) '''Оплату гарантирую.'''
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| '''[14b]''' (if the archive ''has not'' posted their research and copy fees online, inquire as to the cost and forms of payment accepted) '''Сколько стоит поиск и копирование?''' '''Какие формы оплаты вы принимаете?'''
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| '''[15] Спасибо''' '''Вам большое!'''
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| '''[16] С уважением,'''
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| [Your full name]
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| |'''[1] To the Director of the Archive''' [Archive Initials]
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| '''[2] From''' [Your full name and contact information]
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| '''[3]''' '''Statement'''
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| '''[4] Good day!'''
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| '''[5] I request your help in my genealogical search.'''
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| '''[6] My''' [relationship - grandmother, great-grandfather, etc.],
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| '''[7]''' [full name of ancestor in Russian], [religion (in genitive case)] '''religion,'''
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| '''[8a] was born'''
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| '''[8b] was married to''' [name of spouse (in genitive case)]
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| '''[8c] died'''
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| '''[9] in''' [name of parish/village/colony (include any known alternate names) (in prepositional case)],
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| '''[10] on''' [date of birth, marriage, or death],
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| '''[11] Please use the metrical books available in your archive in'''
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| [fond and opis number if available, and/or any other additional information], '''to locate proof of'''
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| '''[12a] his/her parents or birth.'''
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| '''[12b] his/her marriage.'''
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| '''[12c] his/her death.'''
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| '''[13] Please send me a copy of any available documents.'''
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| '''[14a] I guarantee payment.'''
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| '''[14b] How much do lookup and copy fees cost? What forms of payment do you accept?'''
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| '''[15] Thank you very much!'''
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| '''[16] Respectfully yours,'''
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| [Your full name]
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| |}<nowiki>*</nowiki>Common relationship words include:
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| |+Relationship Vocabulary
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| !English
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| !Russian
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| |-
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| |grandfather
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| |дедушка
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| |-
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| |grandmother
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| |бабушка
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| |-
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| |great-grandfather
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| |пра-дедушка
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| |-
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| |great-grandmother
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| |пра-бабушка
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| |-
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| |great (repeat as many
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| times as necessary)
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| |пра
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| |-
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| |ancestor
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| |предок
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| |-
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| |ancestors
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| |предки
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| |-
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| |brother
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| |брат
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| |-
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| |sister
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| |сестра
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| |-
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| |father
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| |отец
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| |-
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| |mother
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| |мать
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| |-
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| |spouse
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| |супруг
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| |-
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| |husband
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| |муж
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| |-
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| |wife
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| |жена
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| |}For additional help writing a research request, you may want to consider reading [http://livemem.ru/articles/kak_sdelat_zapros_o_rodstvennikah.html the article "Как сделать правильный запрос в архив о предках"].
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| ===Archive Research Request Example===
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| '''Директору архива ГАВО'''
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| '''От Джейн До (Jane Doe), janedoe@email.com'''
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| '''Заявление'''
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| Добрый день!
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| Прошу Вас мне помочь в генеалогическом поиске. Мой предок, Иоганн Шмидт/Johann Schmidt, eвангелического-лютеранского вероисповедания, родился в Гречинной Луке/Валтере/Walter, в 1 января 1860 г. Прошу, используя имеющиеся в Вашем архиве метрические книги в ф. 176, о. 1, ед. хр. 4, чтобы, сообщить мне сведения о его родителях. Пожалуйста, пришлите мне копии имеющихся документов. Оплату гарантирую.
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| С уважением,
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| Джейн До (Jane Doe)
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| =='''Visiting an Archive'''== | | =='''Visiting an Archive'''== |
| In some cases, it may be necessary to visit an archive personally to obtain the desired record. Visiting an archive is not something that you can plan at the drop of a hat - it takes planning and preparation. '''Before''' you purchase airfare and plan your trip, be sure to contact the archive to see if they will be open during the time you plan to visit. | | In some cases, it may be necessary to visit an archive personally to obtain the desired record. Visiting an archive is not something that you can plan at the drop of a hat - it takes planning and preparation. '''Before''' you purchase airfare and plan your trip, be sure to contact the archive to see if they will be open during the time you plan to visit. |