Papers of the Continental Congress

Memorials Address to Congress 1775 - 1788

Microfilm Roll # 49; No. 41, Vol. 2, page 437

Subject: Express Riders' Pay

To the Honorable the Congress of the United States of the Thirteen United States of America

The Memorial of William Dodd, Levallin Barry, Patrick McClosky, Richard Ross
humbly Sheweth that Your Memorialists were employed by Mr. Hancock late President of Congress in the Year 1777 as expresses That your Memorialists never had any Settlement with Mr. Hancock nor knew what pay they were to receive but were informed by him that they should receive pay to their Satisfaction. That within these two Months past The Auditors appointed to settle their Accounts had allowed them only Twenty five Shillings per day from their Time of Entrance to the first day of August 1777 and from the said First day of August to the first day of November following Thirty five Shillings per day they bearing there own Expenses, which Sums on Account of the dearness of Travelling & your Memorialists find barely sufficient to defray their necessary Expenses. That your Memorialists would not had they conceived they would be allowed no more pay would have not continued so long in the said Employ.
Your Memorialists therefore pray, That your Honors would be pleased to take the premisses into Consideration and order that such Augmentation be made to their pay during the Time aforesaid as to you shall seem meet.
And your Memorialists will ever pray etc.
Philadelphia November 9, 1778
Wm Dodd
Levallin Barry
Patrick McClosky
Richard Ross

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Records

Warning: It will be necessary to track the enactment
of this pay-for-program proposal.

USCIS To Provide Fee-for-Service Genealogy Program

As published in with permission granted:
Nu? What's New?
The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
Volume 7, Number 6 | April 23, 2006


USCIS To Provide Fee-for-Service Genealogy Program
After years of prodding by the genealogical community,
it appears the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service
(USCIS-formerly called the Immigration and Naturalization
Service) will provide a method for expediting inquiries
from genealogists for records of their ancestors. There
is a notice in the Federal Register to establish a Genealogy
Program to process requests for historical records of
eceased persons.

USCIS claims it receives 10,000 requests a year for the
current service which is provided free under the Freedom
of Information Act. Because of lack of manpower and facilities,
it can take more than a year for a request to be processed.
The genealogical community suggested that USCIS provide an
alternate fee-for-service method to expedite requests. Such
a service was started a few years ago by the Social Security
Administration to process requests of their historical records.

Under the proposed rules, genealogical inquiries will no longer
be free of charge. If a request is made under the Freedom of

Information Act and USCIS determines it is a genealogical
inquiry,  the request will be returned to the sender who
will be asked to  resubmit using the Genealogy Program.

The following record groups will be part of the Genealogy
Program:
* Naturalization Certificate Files (C-Files), which are
records from September 27, 1906 to April 1, 1956, relating
to U.S. naturalizations and the issuance of evidence of
naturalization or citizenship.
* Forms AR-2, which are Alien Registration Forms on microfilm
that were completed by all aliens age 14 and older who resided
in or entered the United States between August 1, 1940, and
March 31, 1944. These forms contain identification information,
as well as information regarding the alien's employment and
arrival to the United States.
* Visa Files, which are records from July 1, 1924, to
March 31, 1944 containing the arrival information of
immigrants admitted for permanent residence from July 1, 1924
to March 31, 1944, under  the Immigration Act of 1924.
* Registry Files, which are records from March 2, 1929, to
March 31, 1944, containing arrival information of immigrants
who entered the United States prior to July 1, 1924, and for
whom no arrival records could later be found.
* A-Files, which are case files on individuals containing all
immigration records created or consolidated from April 1, 1944,
to the present. Only files containing documents dated prior to
May 1, 1951, will be available.

Submitters will have to show proof of death of the individual
such as a death certificate or obituary notice. If the year of
birth was more than 100 years ago, no proof of death will be
required.  These records often include information about the
children of the individual, and these children may still be
living; therefore,USCIS states that "the Genealogy Program will
not release personal information concerning a subject's children."

USCIS envisions the service to be in two stages. Initially the
submitter would request an index search to determine what
information is available. Then there would be a request
for the actual documents.

USCIS has budgeted about $1 million per year for the service,
and they expect such a level of expense could handle the
anticipated 25,000 inquiries per year. This would make break
even $40 per inquiry; however, the agency already has in its
budget the cost of processing current inquiries. In the Federal
Register the agency is recommending that the cost for an index
search and for requests for an actual document be between
$16-45 for each file of microfilm being searched and $26-55
for retrieval of textual files.

Interested persons can comment on the proposed regulation.
Information on how to respond to the proposal, as well as a
12-page description of the new plan, is located at the Federal
Register site
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/E6-5947.pdf