My name is Jeanie Chooey Low. I am a genealogist, author, and educator with a degree in Library Technology. I worked for 10 years for the library at the University of California, San Francisco in circulation and cataloging. I also have a BA in Chinese Studies, and I am currently a fiber artist based in San Francisco, CA. 

Since 1992, I conducted research in records at the National Archives at San Francisco (NARA-SF), including immigration case files, Chinese business partnership case files, and Chinese mortuary records created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service; San Francisco gold deposit ledgers from the U.S. Mint; census records; WWI and WWII draft registration cards; and Alien Case Files (A-Files) for individuals with birth years more than 100 years ago. 

I aim to teach others to do genealogical research at NARA-SF. Many are the descendants of first generation immigrants who were subjected to discrimination during the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943) and the Joseph McCarthy era. It is my goal to help the descendants understand why those family members would not talk about their immigration experiences. I have accessed and reviewed original documents in case files for individuals, with the help of the “Index to Certificates of Identity Books, 1909-1938.” This index is contained in two binders compiled by volunteers and located at NARA-SF. 

The staff at NARA-SF have the expertise as historians to help researchers locate family records.  For instance, the “Index to Certificates of Identity Books, 1909-1938” is arranged alphabetically, listing each Chinese immigrant who was issued a Certificate of Identity upon arrival in the United States. The physical binders make it easy to locate their immigration case file, listing their Certificate of Identity number, ship and date of arrival.

The “Registers of Chinese Certificates of Identity Issued by the San Francisco” are available on the National Archives online catalog, but finding specific individuals proves almost impossible because you need to know what year the person arrived. Those records are arranged numerically and chronologically. Finally the microfilm images online are difficult to read. In fact, in the introduction to these records on the microfilm, it specifically notes: “Due to faded ink - or light colored ink - many pages contain information that is difficult to read.”

It is difficult to find exact records using NARA’s online catalog. The National Archives website even states that not all individuals with federal records are listed in its catalog: “A common challenge reported by catalog users is searching for names of ordinary people. While catalog descriptions may mention public figures or people who figure prominently in the records, they cannot list every person's name…”

Many records are not listed in the National Archives online catalog. For example, one immigration case file contains a fragile 1909 Chinese wedding scroll that is 4 feet wide and is handwritten on red & gold paper. It is a rare document that lists three generations of the bride’s family. The name of the immigrant and this rare wedding scroll are not in the online catalog.

In my opinion, once records that are not listed in the National Archives online catalog found at NARA-SF are packed and shipped to other locations, there is little hope of ever finding those case files again. Shipping records may also damage records such as the wedding scroll mentioned above. This move will result in the loss of United States history that goes against the National Archives’ mission to preserve our nation’s history through its federal records.

I oppose the National Archives’ plan to close the National Archives at San Francisco, ship all its records to undetermined locations and to sell the building. There were no public announcements nor were public hearings held.

When I wrote my 2026 book Ancestoring, a majority of the records I used were originally housed at the NARA facilities in the Chicago, San Bruno, and San Francisco regions. These collections are widely appreciated but are also nuanced, and realizing their full value requires the patience, dedication, and record-specific knowledge of highly-skilled researchers. My personal genealogy has relied on these records to understand ancestors from Hawaii to the United States, from Japan and China, and their military service. So much of my own family’s stories and proof of life are in these records. 

My first reaction to the news of shuttering these three NARA facilities, with records moving to temporary locations, their final destinations still unknown, was personal. It felt like splitting up a family and sending the children to friends or strangers to be fostered for an undetermined time, likely with poor outcomes. But with time to reflect, there is a deeper reason why the decision bothers me: when political appointees use budget constraints to rationalize collection management choices, the records of ethnic minorities are always the first to go. The records at these facilities are my ancestors: Hawaiians, Polynesians, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and other ethnic groups that came to the United States on the West Coast. This is the current administration’s way of saying that our ancestor’s lives, documented in these records, are not important enough to be kept available to the public. 

This is the disappearing of my ancestors and ultimately, of large sections of my pedigree because these records are no longer available. My known and unknown ancestors are being evicted from their record-homes under the guise of real estate transactions and cost savings. This is the internment of the physical archives that have our ancestor’s information. Do we (Hawaiians, Chinese, Japanese, and others who have ancestors in these records, known and unknown) cease to exist in America if these records are gone? 

Why are they choosing now to hide our ancestors in an unavailable storage facility? Will our descendants be able to prove citizenship without these records? These choices typically begin with small groups of people and then get bigger. Your ancestors may be next.

Darcie Hind Posz, CG, FASG

I am a historian. I researched at the National Archives at San Francisco in 2016-18 when I was writing my dissertation at Stanford. I was so thrilled to find partnership agreements among Chinese enterprises in the 1870s. There was no SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) a century ago. These immigration records provide critical documentation of how business was conducted and how kinship influenced business.

The National Archives at San Francisco provides historians with documents that convey a sense of immediacy - an unaltered connection to our past - and preserve our collective history as a nation, a nation of immigrants.

Joseph Ng, PhD