APG-L Archives

Archiver > APG > 2002-04 > 1018040352


From: "Diane C. Russell" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Inaccessibility of Funeral Homes' Records
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 16:02:30 -0500
References: <200204051420.AA13762750@ahaseminars.com>
In-Reply-To: <200204051420.AA13762750@ahaseminars.com>


Since access to records for genealogical purposes seems to be under
attack on a number fronts, I would argure that it is time to go on the
offensive.

There are a lot of genealogical, biographical, and historical
researchers in this county--every single one a potential consumer of
funeral homes services. The funeral directors need to be reminded of
that fact.

One thing we might do is have George Morgan, or some equally
articulate writer, prepare and submit a response to the August 2001
articles in "The Director." If they won't print it, that fact should
be widely reported.

Another thing we might do is encourage people to ask their local
funeral homes for a public statement about their information release
policies. Such information could be shared on various lists, posted
on USGenWeb county sittes, or even consolidated into some kind of
national register of funeral home policies. Disseminating such
information would be useful in two ways.

First, it would let potential cutomers know which individual funeral
homes or chains are researcher friendly and which are not.

And second, it would make it easier for researchers to determine how
best to proceed, what to ask for, and what fees, if any, to expect
when requesting information from specific funeral homes or chains.

George's message suggests that the funeral industry seems to be afraid
of the potential consequences of releasing information. We need to
let them know that there may be greater negative consequences for
refusing to release the information.


On Fri, 5 Apr 2002 14:20:02 -0500, you wrote:

>Dear APG Members,
>
>In the past year, I have heard more and more genealogists tell me that their requests for copies of funeral home records have been denied. The most frequent reason they are apparently being given is that there have been a lot of lawsuits and that the funeral home doesn't want to be sued. I searched the APG-L archive and have found nothing mentioned on this subject and so I felt it was critical that I share the following information.
>
>I decided to do some research to see if I could determine the source of this information and/or to verify the claim about lawsuits. I quickly found on the Internet what I believe is the origin of this thing.
>
>I located a reference to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) at http://www.nfda.org. The organization is based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Their magazine is called "The Director" and in the August 2001 issue were two articles by T. Scott Gilligan. Mr. Gilligan is a partner with the law firm of Statman, Harris, Siegel & Eyrich in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the General Council for NFDA, and the mini-bio at the end of the articles states that he "represents NFDA in matters dealing with the FTC Funeral Rule."
>
>The most significant article is titled, "How Should You Respond to Genealogy Researchers?" In this one-page article, Mr. Gilligan indicates that some "unscrupulous individual may misappropriate records" from the funeral home's files and that the funeral home may risk "a significant legal liability when it permits public access to its records." He goes on to say: "To protect against possible violations or legal action, we recommend that funeral homes not permit genealogy researchers unlimited access to their records and files. This advisory extends even to requests by family members to examine files of their own family." He goes on to say that a funeral director has no way to know if some confidence shared with the funeral home might be some "secret known throughout the family." As an alternative, Mr. Gillian suggests that the funeral home might, in the interest of not offending genealogists, compile a binder containing the published obituaries of the individuals whose !
a!
>rrangements they have handled. (How may funeral homes do we think will do that?)
>
>To judge the extent of the effect that this article may have had, Pam Cooper of the Vero Beach Public Library did some quick research on NFDA. According to statistics from the year 2000, Gale Group published that NFDA's "The Director" magazine had a circulation of 13,866 subscribers and 200 unpaid. She also checked the year 2000 statistics with the Yellow Book and determined that there were 21, 337 funeral homes in the U.S. That means that there is a possibility that this article may conceivably have reached as many as 65% of all funeral home directors in this country. (Thank you for your excellent help, Pam!)
>
>While there may be some concern about privacy, the denial of access to funeral home records may well mark the end of the line for research on an individual or a family line for an individual family genealogist or a professional researcher.
>
>I would like to see a discussion on the list of this situation. Needless to say, copyright laws prevent me from making photocopies of this article or from quoting it in its entirety. I have quoted passages here in compliance with Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines from the Library of Congress' Copyright Office Web site. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the article or a copy of the August 2001 issue of "The Director" yourself, you may contact NFDA at 1-800-228-6332 or (262) 789-1880 (these numbers were published in that issue of the magazine).
>
>Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue of records access.
>
>George G. Morgan
>
>
>==== APG Mailing List ====
>The Association of Professional Genealogists
>
>

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