The Genealogical Institute on Federal Records will be held in-person at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., from Sunday, August 10th through Saturday, August 16th, 2025.
Gen-Fed registration applications will be accepted from February 8 to 21.
The live randomized drawing will be held on February 22nd.
There is an exciting change coming to Gen-Fed registration. Here’s what you need to know.
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- The rule that a person cannot attend twice within five years is still our policy. Due to such limited seating we want to give more people a chance. The only exception to this is for people who attended the 2021 or 2022 virtual sessions. Those persons may reapply for the in-person institute within the five years.
- We empathize with those who have tried year after year to get in, but haven’t been picked. The new policy is that those who have applied multiple times since 2021 will be allowed an extra entry into the drawing for every third, fourth, or more attempts to register. In other words, their name will go in multiple times for the 2025 drawing. See the chart below.
- There will be a section in the new application that goes out on February 8 to indicate previous unsuccessful applications. We will check names on our running list.
- For persons who attended a virtual session in 2021 or 2022, that year does not count for times applied to Gen-Fed.
- People who sucessfully obtained a seat from 2021 to 2024 but had to withdraw are eligible for these rules as well.
- We are not extending this policy to registration applications from 2020 and before.
Looking forward to seeing you!
Rebecca & Mary
| Virtual 2021 | Virtual 2022 | In-person 2023 | In-person 2024 | Options | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applicant 1 | applied | applied | After only 2 tries, this person gets 1 entry in 2025. If applies in 2025 but not drawn, this person eligible for 2 entries in 2026. | ||
| Applicant 2 | applied | applied | applied | After 3 tries, this person gets 2 entries in 2025. | |
| Applicant 3 | applied | applied | applied | applied | After 4 tries, this person gets 3 entries in 2025. |
| Applicant 4 | applied | attended virtual | applied | applied | Because this person attended a virtual session, their other 3 tries still equal 2 entries in 2025. The virtual session is not an unsuccessful application. |
| Applicant 5 | applied | attended in-person | This person attended an in-person session. They are not eligible to apply again until 2028. | ||
| Applicant 6 | applied | name drawn but could not attend | applied | The year this person’s name was drawn for a seat, but they had to withdraw. This still counts as 3 tries, this person gets 2 entries in 2025. |