I’ve got a tip for you—one that might just change the way you think about accessing records from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
At the recent National Genealogical Society conference in Louisville, I was chatting with a colleague who casually mentioned that she’d received records from NARA in under two weeks.
Naturally, I scoffed.
If you’ve ever dealt with government agencies for records, you know the drill: months of waiting, sometimes even a year, and often a black hole of silence. So yeah, I was skeptical.
But she had my attention. I asked who handled her lookup.
Her answer? Gopher.
Intrigued, I made a beeline for their exhibit table. After a quick conversation, I decided to give their service a try.
The moment I got home (okay, right after tossing my laundry in the wash), I created an account on Gopher. I filled out their request form—it was easy, no fuss—and asked for several records I’d wanted for years.
About eight years ago, I visited NARA in person and retrieved Civil War service and Postmaster records for two ancestors. I had a whole list of others I wanted to search, but I only had one day—and it happened to be a busy one. I never got back. Life happened.
But with record access tightening and uncertainty growing, I decided it was time to stop waiting for "someday."
I submitted my order through Gopher. Eight days later, the digitized records landed in my inbox.
Yes, seriously—eight days.
And they weren’t just quick. They were immaculate. Much better than the old blue photocopies I brought home from NARA years ago. These were clean, clear, and looked authentic. They had digitized 754 pages for my five ancestors!!!!
What really impressed me, though, was their honesty.
Gopher emailed to let me know that some of the records I requested were already available on Fold3. But—get this—they’d noticed the images were glitchy and took it upon themselves to contact Fold3 to report the issue. Who does that?
Oh, and they didn’t charge me for those records either. Double wow.
Now, I know what you’re thinking—this must’ve been expensive. But let me tell you: it was far more affordable than traveling to D.C. myself. No airfare, no hotel, no meals. Just quality records, delivered quickly, without the hassle.
So if you’ve been putting off a NARA request, don’t wait. Get those records while you still can—and consider letting Gopher do the legwork.
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