Most of Alaska’s Territorial Court records will not be transferred to the National Archives in Seattle, but will stay in Alaska.
The National Archives and Records Administration says it will transfer 92 percent of Territorial Court as well as Alaska Railroad historical records to the Alaska State Archives in Juneau. Both account for about 25 percent of the records now housed in the National Archives office in Anchorage. The Anchorage facility will be closed this summer and the remaining documents will be transferred to the Seattle NARA office.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski was notified of the decision on Friday. In a letter to Murkowski, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero said most of the Territorial Court records don’t require permanent preservation in the National Archives. They include court proceedings; birth, death and marriage records; mining and other property records that pre-date statehood as well as case files, dockets, and records of civil and criminal proceedings in the Alaska court system through 1959.
The territorial and railroad records will be housed in the new State Library Archives and Museum building under construction in downtown Juneau.
Rosemarie Alexander is a reporter at KTOO in Juneau.
