This came in on another list that I am on. Thought it might be of interest
to Kosciusko County list.
| The NARA proposal to revamp the system and fees for providing copies of
| Military Service Records, Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Files, and
| Pension Application Files has been published in the 25 April 2000 issue
| of the Federal Register. Public comment is invited and should be
| directed to
|
| NARA Regulation Comment Desk
| 8601 Adelphi Road
| College Park, MD 20740-6001
| Fax: 301 713-7270
|
| The comment period closes on 26 June 2000. NARA prefers that you use
| either the postal address or fax number to submit our comments rather
| than e-mail.
| A complete copy of the Federal Register notice is available from the
| NARA Web site at
http://www.nara.gov/nara/fees-pro.html.
|
| The proposed Reproduction Fee Schedule covers a number of items, but the
| Military Service Records, and the Pension and Bounty-Land Warrants are
| of the greatest concern to genealogists. NARA proposes three major
| changes:
|
| 1. The NATF Form 80 would be discontinued, to be replaced by two new
| forms: NATF Form 85 to request both Bounty-Land Warrant application
| files and Pension files (more than 75 years old), and NATF From 86 to
| request Military Service Records (more than 75 years old).
|
| 2. For all three types of files, NARA would no longer send a selection
| of pages, but would send the complete file. This would eliminate the
| two-step process currently used and should be beneficial to most
| genealogists.
|
| 3. The fees for all three types of files would be raised. For Military
| Service Records the new fee would be $17.00, regardless of the number of
| pages included in the file. For Bounty-land Warrants the fee would be
| $17.25, again without regard to the number of pages. For Pension Files
| the fee would be $40.00, regardless of the number of pages.
|
| Finally, the proposal would go into effect on 1 September 2000, if
| approved.
|
| Many genealogists may consider the proposed fees to be excessive. NARA
| specifically invites comment on the proposed fee schedule. The FGS/NGS
| Records Preservation and Access Committee urges everyone who wants to
| comment to carefully read the full proposal before submitting comments.
| The proposed fees are intended to cover the actual cost of locating,
| copying and mailing the records, plus 10% as authorized by law, and are
| based on the average size of the files. NARA states that the average for
| Military Service Records and Bounty-land Applications is somewhere under
| 20 pages, while the average for full Pension Files is 105 pages.
|
| The FGS/NGS Records Preservation and Access Committee will be looking at
| the NARA proposal carefully, and will submit comments as appropriate.
| Individuals who would like to provide input to the Committee's
| evaluation are welcome to do so but are also encouraged to comment
| direct to NARA at the address given above. Comments for Committee
| consideration should be e-mailed to fgs-access(a)fgs.org, or mailed to
| Federation of Genealogical Societies, Attention: RPAC, PO Box 200940,
| Austin, TX 78720-0940. In order for the Records Preservation and Access
| Committee to adequately evaluate such input it must be received by 26
| May 2000. The deadline for comment to NARA, however, is still 26 June
| 2000.
|
| Posting of this message to other mail lists is encouraged. A copy of
| this message will also be available on the Records Preservation and
| Access page of the FGS Web site <
http://www.fgs.org/fgs-recordsnews.htm>
| and on the NGS Web site <
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org>
|
|