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I was recently made aware of the intent to close a few National Archives, including our local one in San Bruno, California.  The wonderful Grant Din, who also happens to be a CGS member, is leading the charge to raise awareness. He and others with the Save Our National Archives group have issued a press release encouraging folks to contact their Congressional representatives and NARA.  This is posted below and I hope you will join us in writing letters to our Congresspeople.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Anna Eng, [email protected]
Grant Din, [email protected]

NATIONAL ARCHIVES IN SAN BRUNO THREATENED WITH IMMEDIATE CLOSURE;
ACTION ALERT TO COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Save Our National Archives (SONA) is working to prevent the imminent closure of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) San Francisco center in San Bruno, California and also opposes the closure of its site in Chicago, Illinois. The NARA website states that the San Bruno facility will be closed within three years and we understand the move could begin as soon as this August, 2026. SONA has been involved since 1998 to ensure continued public access to these vital archival documents at the San Bruno location. These are invaluable resources, important to the region and the communities documented in them and should not be removed from the region and moved anywhere, in effect cutting off researchers and public access to these vital sources of American history.

The closure of the regional national archives in San Bruno and Chicago and the consolidation of these materials at locations such as the caverns of the Missouri NARA center which has no research facilities would not only remove the materials from their places of relevance but would effectively cut off public access. The loss of access to these artifacts and community and genealogical history would be a terrible blow to historians, researchers, families, and students, and ultimately be detrimental to our communities and overall American History.

As stated in NARA’s website, regarding the San Bruno location, “The records contain valuable historical information relating to Native Americans, and Americans of African, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese, Samoan, and other ancestry. Especially notable are records of the Federal district and appellate courts, U.S. Army, U.S. Attorneys and Marshals, Community Services Administration, Fair Employment Practices Committee (World War II), Farmers Home Administration, Government of American Samoa, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Navy, and microfilmed records of the Bureau of the Census.”

Among these 100,000 cubic feet of documents are hundreds of thousands of immigration and naturalization materials for people from over eighty countries, including extensive Chinese Exclusion case files; German, Italian, and Japanese American internment files; Public Health records; Mexican Land grant cases; Hawaiian Birth Certificates and citizenship cases; and arrival case files for Russian Jews and other immigrants from throughout the world.

https://www.archives.gov/san-francisco/finding-aids/ethnic-reference-paper.html
https://www.archives.gov/san-francisco/finding-aids/holdings-guide-04.html
https://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/aliens#What%20is%20an%20A-File?

Direct access to the physical documents and artifacts often belonging to families and communities in these case files is critical, as are the expert staff in San Bruno who are extremely knowledgeable about the holdings and how and where to locate items. Many of the documents are large and fragile, and digitization is unfeasible and would damage them. Within these archives are personal family photographs, family letters, maps of home villages, original wedding, marriage, and birth certificates from countries of origin, tribal artifacts of Native Americans and Native Hawaiian communities, and other sources of community history.

Long-standing agreements between the National Archives and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were made to ensure that historical documents and artifacts important to family history will be made available to the public and not moved from the San Bruno location. This must continue to hold true. To make these materials inordinately inaccessible to the American people would be a violation of the Freedom of Information Act and to make them disproportionately unavailable to the communities from whose histories they document would be a violation of the 14th Amendment for Equal Protection under the Law.

With concerns that files may be moved soon, SONA has launched an immediate letter writing campaign to contact the Archives and is asking writers and organizations to CC their Congressional representatives and ask them to take immediate action. (If possible, email a copy of your letter to us at [email protected]).

Please express your opposition by writing to

Edward Forst, Acting Archivist of the United States
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001

NARA should receive substantially greater funding and serve more people, not reduce access to its important documents that tell the history of this country. Please also call your members of congress to oppose this terrible action. Access to documents of our national history is foundational to American Democracy and is at the heart and essence of what we celebrate as we commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary.

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“To read a KQED article from June 26, 2026 follow this link.”

Helpful Links
Events: https://www.californiaancestors.org/events-and-education/
Special Interest Groups: https://www.californiaancestors.org/special-interest-groups-for-members/
Calendar view: https://www.californiaancestors.org/cgs_calendar/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes