Hiring a Professional Researcher

As an alternative to ordering copies of documents directly from the National Archives, you may want to hire a professional researcher.  The National Archives website has a page entitled, “Independent Researchers for Hire.”  These people specialize in records at the National Archives II (NAII) where the World War II records are housed.  NAII is in College Park, Maryland just outside of Washington, D.C.   Use the link above to go directly to the 40-page list of researchers.   Each entry gives the type of records in which the researcher specializes.  Note also the person’s address.  Those living in Washington, D.C., the state of Maryland (MD), or the state of Virginia (VA), presumably will be able to access the archive more readily.  Contact the researcher for his or her rates and when the researcher can commence your research.  Also inquire as to whether the researcher can scan documents using their own equipment.  Sending you scanned copies may be faster and cheaper than having them make paper copies, etc.    Note at the end of the list the links that allow you to sort the list and extract what you want in the way of topic specialties and researcher locations.  Note also the disclaimer by the National Archives that these individuals are not National Archives employees and inclusion on the list is not endorsement of the quality of their work.