HOW TO RETRIEVE FILES OR RECORDS THAT HAVE BEEN SENT TO NARA
The Southern District of Ohio may transfer civil and criminal files that have been closed for 3 or more years to the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) records center.
NARA will transfer permanent cases to the archive records center after 20 years. Non-permanent cases are destroyed and the permanent cases are converted to digital or electronic format.
The website for NARA is www.archives.gov.
CASES CLOSED LESS THAN 20 YEARS:
If you are looking for a case that was closed less than 20 years, please provide NARA with the accession number, location number and the box number(s). You may obtain the accession, location and box number from the Clerk’s Office in any of the three seats of court. Contact information for each location may be found on the main page of the Court’s website under Court Locations.
You may submit a request in one of the following ways:
| Via email : | Please email your request to: Chicago.Archives@nara.gov - Put "Attn: Records Center" in the subject line of your email request. |
| By Phone : | Call 1-773-948-9001, and ask for the records center. |
| By Website: | www.archives.gov. |
| By Mail: | National Archive and Records Administration Attn: Records Center 7358 S. Pulsaki Rd. Chicago, IL 60629 |
CASES CLOSED MORE THAN 20 YEARS:
If the case has been closed for more than 20 years, submit the case name, case number, party name(s) and year the case was filed. The accession number, location number and the box number(s) are not needed to obtain information about cases closed more than 20 years.
You may submit a request in one of the following ways:
| Via email: | Please email your request to :Chicago.Archives@nara.gov Put “Attn: Records Center” in the subject line of your email request. |
| By Phone: | Call 1-773-948-9001, and ask for the records center. |
| By Website: | www.archives.gov |
| By Mail: | National Archive and Records Administration Attn: Archives Center 7358 S. Pulsaki Rd. Chicago, IL 60629 |
National Archives Order Civil Cases Instructions
National Archives Order Criminal Cases Instructions
National Archives Order Requesting Military Records
The following archived information is available at the Chicago NARA center.
Columbus Listings:
Civil Docket Books – 1913 – 1990
Criminal Docket Books 1894 – 1992
Petitions for citizenship 1917 – 1964
Military Petitions for Naturalization – 1894 – 1919
Equity Journal – 1925 – 1938
Bar Admission Book 1880 -1955
Declaration of Intention – 1894 – 1964
Dayton Listings:
Civil Docket Books – 1938 – 1956
Criminal Docket Books 1917 – 1969
Petitions for citizenship 1916 – 1951
Military Petitions for Naturalization – 1918 – 1919
Equity Journal – 1915 – 1938
Law Journal – 1915 – 1941
Declaration of Intention – 1916 – 1951
Cincinnati Listings:
http://www.archives.gov/chicago/finding-aids/courts/us-courts-cincinnati.html