Hi Danny, Things have changed somewhat over the years. Now what you would like to do to save time is to take some black pull slips home with you when you leave, fill them at night and drop them in the pull box first thing in the morning.

Your exactly right about doing your homework beforehand Danny. There is parking directly across from the NARA but it's a one way street and you have to come from behind to find the parking garage, It's about 100 yards from the Navy Memorial so very close to NARA. They charge $26.00 a day for all day parking and I usually go and get something to eat after leaving the archives by foot or subway to let the DC traffic slow down.

If spending the night I've found the Americana Hotel is the biggest bang for your money in my opinion. And it's near the subway stop in Alexandria, Virginia.

I'm about to the point now of hiring a woman I meant at the NARA a year ago to shoot the photographs of what I want copied. She charges about $25.00 an hour and for $200.00 a day may not be such a bad idea. I watched her taking photographs and she was averaging one page per second which is very quick. After you factor in the $100.00 a day motel charge and food and other miscellaneous charges not to mention the transportation costs for getting to DC it may well be worth it. But like some people I like doing the work myself as I know it's what I want.

You cannot pull Confederate CMSR's unless they are deemed unreadable due to low batteries used in camera's years ago by footnote or if they are faint. To do this you must go back to the learning aid room and have them fill out a special request form and they will sign off on it and then you can pull the records but only one at a time. You are allowed a total of four pulls per secession. I believe the last pull is at either 3 or 4 o'clock. For goodness sakes don't just drop your pulls in the box! Someone has to sign off on them. You will be waiting for your material only to find out it's not coming because it was not authorized which means you missed the pull for that hour and will have to start all over again.

It's both an honor and a privilege to look through some of these historical records. Try and be as gentle as you can when dealing with them for future generations to see.