Dear BACGG Members,
Many of you have been following the proposed closure of the National Archives facility in San Bruno. As the discussion continues, we want to make sure our community’s voice is heard. BACGG’s Executive Committee has written the letter below to express our concern about losing local access to Chinese immigration records and other family histories.
One simple way to help is to sign the petition to save the San Bruno Archives. If you would like to do more, you can use our letter below as a guide and send a brief message in your own words.
Thank you for helping protect access to these records for our families and future generations.
BACGG Executive Committee
| Ron Chan Founder and Executive Director Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group Bacgg.ron@gmail.com September 27, 2026 | Dr Bradford P. Wilson National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) 8601 Adelphi Road College Park, MD 20740 ArchivistOfTheUnitedStates@nara.gov |
Dear Dr. Wilson:
On behalf of the 393 members of the Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group (BACGG), we strongly oppose the planned closure of the National Archives at San Francisco in San Bruno, California, and the National Archives facility in Chicago.
The San Bruno and Chicago facilities are important resources for genealogists, family historians, educators, students, veterans, and families researching their history. Their collections include Asian immigration records, Alien Case Files (A-Files), military records, Native American records, and other materials essential to understanding and documenting our nation’s history.
For Asian American families in particular, these records provide a remarkable bridge between our earliest Asian American ancestors and their descendants today. They allow us to move beyond names and dates to discover the documents, experiences, relationships, and stories that connect generations and preserve a rich and often overlooked part of American history.
While digitization has improved access to many records, it cannot replace access to original documents. Many records have not been digitized, and genealogists often need to examine original files and related documents that are not available online. Moving these collections away from the communities they serve will make research more difficult and costly for the public.
We respectfully ask NARA to reconsider these closures, provide greater transparency about the future of these collections, and engage with the researchers and communities who depend on them.
These are not simply government records. They are primary sources of American family history—the evidence that allows descendants to discover where their families came from, how they became part of this nation, and how their stories contributed to the history of the United States.
The National Archives belongs to the American people. We hope NARA will preserve not only these important records, but also meaningful public access to them.
Sincerely
Ron Chan
Founder and Executive Director
Bay Area Chinese Genealogy Group (BACGG)
BACGG Executive Committee
Bruce Chin, Gail Chong, Doris Dare, Calvin Fong, Leona Lau, Tom Loui, Allan Low, Jeannie Young
