NARA rolls made digital

[smetanin albert]

It's bad times for visitors to the reading room.
Rolls of the A3343 series have become practically unavailable.

The situation is similar in Berlin.
Part of the documents was transferred to the (former) WASt for digitization.
These documents were no longer available for research in the reading room.

[nickterry]

It's bad times for visitors to the reading room.
Rolls of the A3343 series have become practically unavailable.

The situation is similar in Berlin.
Part of the documents was transferred to the (former) WASt for digitization.
These documents were no longer available for research in the reading room.

This I don't understand; the microfilms at NARA in the reading room are meant to be user copies, they wear out or even break - this happened to me and you're told, don't worry, we make new ones from the master copy. The same obviously goes for when microfilm copies are ordered, it didn't mean the microfilm reel in question was temporarily unavailable. If you're saying that NARA has neglected the maintenance of the reading room user copies then OK, but technically this shouldn't be an issue. Paper files are different, which is why it makes sense that NARA have made such progress with their microfilm publications, as there should be duplicates for the scanners to work with, without having to schedule the withdrawal of paper files.

The NARA microfilm catalog listing of the 4000+ series (some broken down into multiple parts, so well under 4,000 discrete series from A, C, M, P, T, and a few Z series) is worth perusing to see what they have and haven't digitised, and what was shared with partners like Ancestry, FamilySearch and Fold3: https://www.archives.gov/publications/m ... diplomatic (click through from the main Microfilm Catalog link there, it will expire after a while, and simply browse).

The 'available on catalog' notations are of course lagging by several months behind what is now digitised and uploaded, but one can still see just how much there is still to go. On the other hand, the diplomatic records are well over half done measured by series rather than reels, and these are also advancing into the WWII era, so there'll be more things of interest for some people in RG 59 microfilms.

Of course, it will take years longer than any target date or schedule to be finished with all this.

[smetanin albert]

I will write about the limitations in the archive.

A familiar copyist (I will not disclose the name) wrote from Maryland:
Thanks for your message... Yes, NARA is open but with some limitations. For example, we are currently prohibited from bringing our microfilm scanner machine into NARA because they have no employee that can certify it. It has been certified before, it will be certified again, but I need an employee to do this and that lady apparently retired...

[MLW]

That is odd. I take my microfilm scanner to NARA every week. I have no problems at all. In fact, I will be there tomorrow. I will also say that I never see anyone else there with a microfilm scanner.

[smetanin albert]

To my deep regret.
I have been waiting for the results of your work for a year and a half...

During this time I have ordered more than 500 different documents in Berlin, Freiburg, Prague, Warsaw, Hamburg, Vienna and others (for myself and friends).
I saw that the copies of personal files in the local archives were more interesting and extensive than those in Berlin and NARA.

[Mori]

To my deep regret.
I have been waiting for the results of your work for a year and a half...

During this time I have ordered more than 500 different documents in Berlin, Freiburg, Prague, Warsaw, Hamburg, Vienna and others (for myself and friends).
I saw that the copies of personal files in the local archives were more interesting and extensive than those in Berlin and NARA.

Looking forward for you to publish something based on this whole material you collect & read.

[smetanin albert]

These materials have owners. They are members of the forum. They paid several thousand dollars (or euros) for copying. They are the owners (copies) of documents.
I abide by gentleman's agreements and rules...
In addition, the Bundesarchiv prohibits copying certain types of documents (especially the ehem. WASt).
I do not store unnecessary information (for example, huge files on various types of weapons, the Todt organization) - I delete them.

[Mori]

These materials have owners. They are members of the forum. They paid several thousand dollars (or euros) for copying. They are the owners (copies) of documents.
I abide by gentleman's agreements and rules...

First time I ever read that one cannot use information on a given, publicly available document because another person spent money getting a copy.

Narually, using documents for research first assumes you have an idea what research to do with them. Have you one?

[smetanin albert]

Complex issue...

I just help people with research or writing books.
My interests are narrowly specific.
I remove "excess garbage".
The new owners must manage the information.

[Piet Duits]

Nick Terry, have you seen that the latest things the NARA added to the 242 series are Luftwaffe target files of cities in England?

[nickterry]

Nick Terry, have you seen that the latest things the NARA added to the 242 series are Luftwaffe target files of cities in England?

The very latest addition on Friday was only about 8 files from this series; there are many more that were uploaded in 2022, they're up to 1,166 digitised files and not yet finished with the target dossiers for the UK: https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/3371016

This is where I plead my specialism in Eastern Europe, and ignore the fact that I am British and live in a city that was Baedeker-raided in 1942.

[nickterry]

The NARA catalog currently updates before 11pm GMT, so before 6pm Eastern Time, pretty much daily. Before the new catalog was launched, the uploads would be once a week on the weekends - Saturday evening/Sunday morning - and they seem to be updating the legacy catalog every two weeks on Sunday morning. The RG 238 uploads before and after Christmas tended to go up on Saturday, or later in the week. The uploads seem to more or less go up at the exact same moment, rather than being rolled out over hours.

Anyway, tonight's upload, and thus more or less the end of this week's uploads, was a bust for us. One of the easiest way of detecting significant uploads is to search for 'microfilm', which has gone from:
12 Jan - 1,269,511
20 Jan - 1,269,529
21 Jan - 1,269,550

The digitised files are lower, at 1,115,389 today, but it's a good quick check on whether anything from any of the 3000+ microfilm series was added, not just RGs 238 and 242 but also RG 59 State Department. The headline number does interestingly tick up a reel or two a day, usually immigration records.

The + 21 new reels tonight are the microfilmed records of the Alaska Territorial Legislature in RG 64. <shrugs>

What one can say: the more they do this, the more that the 3000+ microfilm series are ticked off, so contributing to the drawn-out, many years-long process of getting to the microfilm series that might actually interest us.

On the positive side: scanning of files in Presidential libraries continues, so with a broader modern world history hat on, there is some momentum for the Cold War and post-Cold War era, especially with the Carter, Bush and Clinton administrations, thus one can find NSC files on the Rwandan genocide and on Soviet matters from the 1970s etc. The number of digitised files for a 'Presidential' keyword search has gone from 202,410 on Jan 12 to 203,625 on Jan 21, which is not bad progress, especially when compared with the Bundesarchiv's overall snail-pace progress.

Overall: at least the rhythm is clear, so one can check in at appropriate times and days of the week (I would suggest still Saturday/Sunday around 11pm GMT/6pm Eastern Time) and move on in a minute if there's nothing new, as with a news site or any other updated resource.

[nickterry]

Some RG 242 updates tonight, polishing off several smaller series in the pre-Nazi captured German records, only 28 reels but 9 microfilm series out of the way.

Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia (1770-1840), 1787-1842. Microfilm Publication M955. 1 roll.
Mertz von Quirnheim, Christoph Emanuel Hermann Ritter (1866-1947), 1916-1939. Microfilm Publication M958. 2 rolls.
Schlieffen, Alfred Graf von (1833-1913), 1822-1938. Microfilm Publication M961. 8 rolls.
Prussian Mobilization Records, 1866-1918. Microfilm Publication M962. 5 rolls.
Records of the Royal Bavarian War Ministry and Other Bavarian Military Authorities, 1866-1913. Microfilm Publication M963. 7 rolls.
Collection of Correspondence of Herbert von Bismarck, 1881-1883. Microfilm Publication T972. 1 roll.

also dipping their toe into the diplomatic records, starting with some of the indexes
Records of the German Foreign Office Received by the Department of State from the British Museum. Microfilm Publication T264. 2 rolls.
A Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1867-1920 (Oxford: 1959) (also available as Microfilm Publication T322, 1 roll)
Index of Microfilmed Records of the German Foreign Ministry and Reich's Chancellery Covering the Weimar Period (National Archives, 1958) (also available as Microfilm Publication T407, 1 roll).

[Mig190]

Hi ... new here. Hoping to find some digitized rolls for my paper this semester. Here is the list ... thanks in advance.

Armeeoberkommando 9 (AOK 9) // Records Group 242, T-312 German Armies
Roll 285
Roll 292
Roll 350

6th Army Corps (AK): AOK 9 late 1/42 // Records Group 242, T-314 Corps (Part II)
Roll 287 - 293
Roll 294
Roll 295
Roll 299

23rd AK: AOK 9 late 1/42 // RG 242, T-314 Corps (Part IV)
Roll 680

27th AK: AOK 9 late 1/42 // RG 242, T-314 Corps (Part IV)
Roll 772
Roll 773
Roll 774

[Mary Jane]

Hello all,

I am looking for the SS Women Personnel Files and I wonder if they are digitized.

If you know anything, can you please help?