GOPHER RECORDS

To my good fortune, I stumbled on the Gopher Records website by happenstance. This site provides a concise and useful description of records that are available from the National Archives. I was not even aware that many of these records are actually available. More importantly, Gopher provides a relatively inexpensive record retrieval service that is supplemental and complimentary to the services provided by the National Archives. I requested an individual’s civil war medical records through Gopher at a fraction of the cost that the National Archives would have charged. Gopher filled the order within weeks whereas it would have (understandably) taken the National Archives months to fulfill the request. Gopher delivered electronic copies that were as clear as could be expected – even better than copies of other records that I’ve received from the National Archives or downloaded from Ancestry and Fold3. In addition to medical records that I requested (June – Sept 1864), I received additional medical records from earlier in the soldier’s service. This is an invaluable service. I’ll be using it again