iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

I made a few requests to them this year for historic BIA decisions and related materials. I actually got my records so I can't complain a ton. Happy to talk if nobody else has more experience!

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

I think some get burned and coke get fulfilled. Apparently they only started submitting the requests to the records center electronically in like 2022. They had been using paper forms until then…

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Reposted by Alec Ferretti

Dan Carkner @alte.klezmor.im · 24/03/2025

Most unhinged letter I've seen yet in my archival research😭 in YIVO's collection about the landsmanshaft mentioned in the letter. Undated.

New York, August 25th

Mr. Budofsky

With regard to our telephone conversation of last night, it occurs to me that you are probably still unaware of what prompted me to express the hope that I might soon have the pleasure of attending your funeral. Ignorance such as yours was not built in a day and I should not have expected it to be demolished in a night.

Therefore, in the hope that others might be spared the hurt and rage which you so witlessly inflicted upon me, my brother, and others, I will tell you precisely "what you did wrong."

1. During the family's important and very personal consultation with Rabbi Simon, you brusquely intruded yourself into this room of sorrow solely to instruct the Rabbi to be sure to "given mention" to the Chvonicker Aid Society when he spoke his eulogy. In short, you used the moments during which my mother was addressed to God as a vehicle for advertising your grubby little "Aid" society.

2. Again, at graveside, when Rabbi Simon stumbled over the pronunciation of "Chvonicker", you were there loud and clear to prompt him in behalf of your commercial. To you, the most important presence at the funeral was the Chronicker Society. To me, and to those others who cared for her, it was my mother. It is only to a man of enormous insensitivity that this should have to be pointed out.

Had I not been so astonished by your first intrusion, I would have countermanded your instructions to Rabbi Simon on the spot. But the past few days had been trying ones, and my mental reflexes were not what they ought to have been.

In retrospect, Mr. Budofsky, I have no more genuine personal interest in your funeral do care enough, however, about the that this letter will reform your Society. than you had in my mother's. I grief of strangers, to trust future ardors in behalf of your

Sincerely,

George Emmitt

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Well after SIX years, the State Department finally responded to my FOIA request. Now only about 300 more of mine to go.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

From my uncle Ruggiero's INS files: he was arrested in 1937 for playing craps. Queue me bursting into show tunes...

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Some recognizable alien registrations courtesy of the National Archives

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

And look at crazy Eddie up to no good!

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

More celebrity A-Files: Van Halen's Father was convicted of drunk bicycling in 1960!

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

I know nothing about coding so that’s one part of the website that I had nothing to do with… but I’m sure Brooke at @reclaimtherecords.org will be interested

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

I scanned some of my cousins' photos over the weekend. My relative was the owner of a bowling alley and there were some photos from the groundbreaking ceremony in 1957. I found another angle of the exact some moment in the local newspaper.

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Reposted by Alec Ferretti

Alex Calzareth @alcalz.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

USCIS released its FOIA and PA Case Processing Guide dated 29 August 2024 to @alecferretti.bsky.social in only a few months. It looks like it's grown by 53 pages in 2.5 years, based on the 2022 version IRAP (refugeerights.org) got. Document here: tinyurl.com/USCISFOIAPA-...

tinyurl.com

FOIA Case Processing 8-29-2024.pdf

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Come see Alec rant about the government for $5. This is a much better deal than if you were to hire me privately to rant about the government.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

I have used this meme in the past for RTR matters, so I'm glad to see if get a new life

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Me: this is obviously the correct and proper ruling. Also me: This sucks.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

I keep them very brief, unless I have a specific reason this should be complex. I basically say "he has a card, look at the card" or "he's in BIRLS look at BIRLS" and enclose an image of the card/ BIRLS entry. I often have to write very complex FOIA appeals. These are not one of those times.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

This was the actual text: I am writing to appeal the denial of Neil Armstrong's XC File. I provided his VAMI card with the original request, which clearly shows his XC Number to be 17752206. The VBA even noted this number on the response letter. Please have the VBA conduct a proper search. Thank you

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

and we didn't even need a lawsuit!

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

Its roughly: “you nitwits didn’t actually search”

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

The handout from the talk has the instructions on how to submit a FOIA request to them (there's a form). If he's in BIRLS, you shouldn't need the card from the VAMI but because they're so incompetent, it's useful to get it so you can provide the XC Number. For that, you can email NARA St Louis

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

The XC Files are eligible to transfer to NARA 60 years after the date the VA retires the file. In reality, the only files that have moved are files that were closed in 1955 or earlier, and even then it's sporadic. All the rest (the vast majority) require a FOIA request to the VA.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Well if DORIS calls themselves that who I am to argue?

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Yes, absolutely. John Glenn appears in BIRLS which almost always means there is an XC File, and I have and submitted Neil Armstrong's VAMI card with the request, which provides his XC File Number. About 50% of searches come back not found on the first pass and need to be appealed.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

It's really likely that you don't find records when you don't look.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Maybe their files are still on the moon

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

“Knock knock” “Who’s there?” (b6)

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

We'll find out in 30 business days if he has an A-File!

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Thanksgiving, 2001. I am the small one.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Me to client: This should be easy, I just have to pull up the 1884 birth book on FamilySearch FamilySearch to me:

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Thank you! These records are life changing. I've lately turned my attention to some WWII-era life insurance policy files that I think might still exist (for now). With any luck, there might be another 150,000 cubic feet or so of records we don't know about!

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

And here the family is in the 1850 census

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Today in "Parents who hate their children, " I just found a Union Soldier killed in the Civil War whose name was FREEDOM FREEMAN. I was convinced that this was test data that erroneously got published...but then I found his service record! FREEDOM FREEMAN IS REAL.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

And to their credit, they did release material from eight more pages in response to my appeal.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Pulling some more songs out of my Archives...see my FOIA appeal to USCIS about redactions on Helen Reddy's A-File... sung to the tune of "I Am Woman"

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Inspired by @danielloftus.bsky.social and @mdwaas.bsky.social: I wanted to share the limerick I wrote about my favorite New York City government agency back in 2020. More specifically, I read this into the record at a public hearing back in 2020.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

You need to match the syllables. "I've come to litigate again," would work much better.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Wait until you guys see my other parody songs…

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

That’s the date of registration. He was born one day earlier.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Daily reminder that closing off access to vital records has essentially NO correlation with preventing identity theft.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Us Italians celebrate our saint day instead: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand... From today on, my birthday is August 26th.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Alexander of Bergamo - Wikipedia

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Due to their compliance with the Nightingale Ruling, USCIS got me Liam Payne's A-File in 26 business days. And to quote a page of his file, "yes, THAT Liam Payne."

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

He was born February 11th, for anyone wondering.

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Alec Ferretti @alecferretti.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

There's "not knowing your birthday" and then there's "not knowing how February works"

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