I want to extend my sincere thanks to Bob Velke and Gopher Records for their outstanding service in fulfilling my recent records request. As both a family historian and a library associate in my county’s Local History and Genealogy Department, I frequently assist patrons in overcoming genealogy brick walls. When records must be obtained from NARA, those walls often become even more challenging—higher, thicker, and more expensive to navigate. Recently, while revisiting one of my own genealogy roadblocks—one that FamilySearch.org’s AI text recognition helped open up—I faced that familiar challenge: the records I needed were at NARA. Having heard of [...]

Thank you so much, very informative.

I ordered two sets of civil war pension records & they came sooner than I expected. In one I found genealogy info I was hoping for. The 2nd one turned out not to be my John Miller but his file was interesting to read. I will give it to our NY genealogical society for their family files & hopefully someone will find it. I will definitely use Gopher records again.

Gopher Records was able to copy the military and pension records I wanted and email them to me in one week. In the past, ordering directly from NARA, I had gone through a cumbersome request and payment process and waited over 6 months for a different set of service and pension records. Using Gopher Records this time around was not only MUCH faster, it was cheaper, easier, and included hospital records not included in the NARA package. I highly recommend Gopher Records.

I learned about the service from a Civil War forum to which I'm a member. As it happens, I do cemetery preservation work at an historic cemetery and often research persons interred there. Civil War veterans is a key interest of mine. So, long story short, I ended up doing some preservation work in another cemetery and was researching two vets whose stones I would eventually repair. I needed their records so I could share their history at the workshop I was to conduct. Gopher was very quick and made an exception for me due to [...]

I learned of Gopher Records during a genealogy study group that I took from Cyndi Ingalls (of Cyndi's List fame) earlier this year and have used them to retrieve three Civil War pension files so far. Their customer service is outstanding. They kept me informed of my order status, contacted me quickly to clarify the name on one file (which seemed at first to have been commingled with another pensioner's file), and provided the final electronic copies very quickly. (By contrast, I'd ordered a file directly from NARA before discovering Gopher and had to wait quite literally months [...]

I can't say enough for this service. If you are looking for a Civil War Pension File - these are the folks to use. I have used NARA in the past and it has become a frustrating experience. Their system is difficult to navigate, expensive and slow. "Gopher Records" delivered my file quickly and inexpensively. I will definitely be recommending this service to my fellow researchers. I originally saw "Gopher Records" advertised in "The Banner".

I wish I could give them 10 stars! For several years, I have been going back-and-forth with the national archives and veterans administration over my Civil War ancestor. These fine. No very fine folks Neue how to cut through all of that red tape. I now have the records that I had worked for for years in just a few months. Blessing upon you!!!

The service is excellent. Fast and thorough. The two brothers I was researching served in the same company of the Illinois 76th infantry (Kankakee French Canadian ethnicity). One was discharged due to malaria in Nov 1863, and his younger brother joined the same month. I'm curious if this was legally required to have at least one member of the family serving so that when one left, another took over, or was it because of patriotism towards the Union cause in the family?

I order records from Gopher Records several times a month. Their work has proved invaluable for my research. The timeliness of their responses and the fair price makes it easy for me to go back to them again and again. Highly recommend them for your research needs!