Office of Public Recollection
Frequently Asked Questions
These are the questions the Bureau receives most often. Answers are current as of Revision 12.4 and are not individually certified.
Does the Bureau travel through time?
No. "Time travel" is a colloquial and technically imprecise description of date reassignment. Employees may be assigned to nonlocal historical duty at an authorized date-of-duty. These are distinct activities under Directive 4.1. HAEB employees remain subject to payroll throughout.
The Bureau's standing correction to the term is published as a terminology correction.
Is my memory wrong?
The Bureau does not make findings about you. It makes findings about records. Where your recollection differs from the Official Record, the Official Record is the record and your recollection is a recollection. Memory drift is common. Voluntary self-correction is encouraged and is not required.
Nothing the Bureau publishes is a statement about your health. If you remember something differently from the people around you, that is an ordinary human experience and the Bureau has no view on it beyond its filing status.
What happens if I file a report?
You receive a Receipt of Unverified Prior Event with a provisional classification. Most filers are not interviewed. The Bureau does not disclose whether that statement is intended to reassure filers or to manage interview demand.
File a report or read HAEB Form 22-R.
Are there really zero open incidents?
Yes. There are 0 open incidents and 318 incidents under review but not open. Both figures are published. An incident under review is not an open incident, and the status definitions explain the difference.
Where is the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908?
The Act has not been located. The Bureau's position is that the absence of a founding authority from the historical record demonstrates the importance of the authority it founded. The authorities page sets out the current status, and the matter is under review as HAEB-1908-NULL.
Why does the seal say 1789 when the Bureau was founded in 1908?
The seal records continuous service from 1789, effective retroactively. The published founding is 1908. The Bureau has determined that the two figures describe the same period of service under different conventions. See seal and symbols.
What is Revision 12.2?
Revision 12.2 was not issued. Revision 12.4 clarified that Revision 12.2 did not occur. Directive 12.2 remains in force, because a directive numbered for a revision does not require the revision to have occurred.
Can I visit a Bureau office?
No. The Bureau does not receive visitors. Offices that formerly received visitors maintain their visitor logs, which are held by the Archive.
Is this real?
No. The Historical Accuracy Enforcement Bureau is fictional and this site is a work of satire. There is no such agency, no such Act, no such Current Approved Past, and no obligation on anyone to file anything. Nothing you type into this site is transmitted anywhere.
The historical events referenced across the site are real and are sourced. See the satire disclosure and the historical sourcing policy.
The past remains available.