Threatened Record Closures
Governments around the world are jumping on the privacy bandwagon, resulting in a disturbing trend of closures and access restrictions to previously public records. Learn how this affects you as a genealogist. Fee Increases Proposed at Illinois State Archives
If passed, a bill now before the Illinois General Assembly will raise fees from $0.50 to $7 per research request for copies of non-certified death certificates, civil war muster records, and census records. That's a 1400% increase!
FGS/NGS Records Preservation & Access Committee
Committee serves as a collective voice to help promote the concerns of genealogists to legislators and help "advise the genealogical community on ensuring proper access to historical records of genealogical value in whatever media they are recorded, on means to affect legislation, and on supporting strong records preservation policies and practices." Florida State Archives at Risk
Learn about the fight to block Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s budget proposal to dismantle the State Library of Florida and the State Archives and move the contents to other state departments. Includes responses from Florida Senator and Representatives, statements from a variety of interested groups, links to media coverage of the proposed dismantling, and suggestions on how you can help. Indiana Vital Records Threatened
Indiana House Bill 1540 planned to close the public's access to Indiana birth records less than 100 years old, and death records less than 75 years old, unless you are the person named on the record or their next-of-kin. Learn how genealogists were successful in having it defeated! Library of Virginia Service Reduction
the Commonwealth of Virginia’s official research library and archival repository has experienced several rounds of budget reductions during the past two years. Learn how the painful outcomes of the current fiscal situation are affecting genealogists with roots in Virginia. Massachusetts House Bill H5158
Read about the successful initiative by the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC)to stop passage of this bill (defeated in December 2002) which threatened to close historically open vital records. Model State Vital Statistics Act
One reason that many U.S. States are now proposing longer closure periods for records of birth, marriage, and death, is this recommendation by the National Center for Health Statistics of the federal Centers for Disease Control. [In PDF format] Texas Military Records - Proposed Access Restrictions
The state of Texas, as of February 2002, has six bills under consideration in the House and two in the Senate, all related to exempting military discharge records, filed in the city of separation, from required public disclosure. Virginia - Destruction of Wills
Proposed bill would allow destruction of a "will's file along with the original will after 5 years have passed since probate or recordation and allows destruction of originals of instruments which have been recorded and remained unretrieved by the recording party after 6 months, if the documents are no longer of any value and have been microfilmed."
| 