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From: Claire Bettag <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Catholic records
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 12:00:45 -0400
References: <784100.28433.qm@web35501.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <784100.28433.qm@web35501.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


Agreed on all points
Claire

Claire Bettag
1685 34th Street NW
Washington DC 20007
202-625-2598


On 7 May, 2008, at 11:21 AM, Jeanette Daniels wrote:

> Claire:
>
>
> I was hoping that no one would bring this up. The less said, the
> less likely that the Catholic Church would try to stop what has
> already happened. I doubt that the Pope or those who work closely
> with him have any idea of the magnitude of Catholic Church records
> that have already been microfilmed around the world. It took many
> years for the FHL to get permission to film Catholic Church records
> from various places. They would not have been filmed without
> permission. There is obviously a misunderstanding by the current
> Catholic leadership. I personally believe that legally it would be
> very difficult for the current Pope to restrict all Catholic records
> that have been previously microfilmed at the FHL.
>
>
> I agree that it is wrong for over-zealous Mormons to do Temple Work
> for those who lived before that are not directly related to them.
> It is supposed to be restricted to direct-line ancestors and
> siblings of those people, especially anyone born after circa 1880.
> I believe that those who were doing theHolocaust extraction really
> made a mistake by extracting the names of people who had lived too
> recently. It is offensive to those who have their own religious
> beliefs to feel that someone else is forcing religion upon others.
> I agree and understand that.
>
>
> I do believe that the Family History Library is doing a wonderful
> service to all genealogists (professional and amateur) by spending
> the money needed to perserve historical and genealogical records of
> all types and all religions throughout the world. I have no problem
> with old Church registers being extracted and the information made
> available on the IGI. We have all used it. The people whose names
> have been extracted from these registers are long dead and there are
> no current family members jumping up and down worried about what
> religion they are now. The fact that these names have been
> processed through the LDS temples doesn't bother me either because
> this is meaningless. No one dead or alive is going to change his
> religious beliefs unless he wants to. Obviously, God created us
> all and it is up to us to appreciate our differences. That's part
> of the joy of doing genealogical research. We find out about
> ourselves and our ancestors.
>
>
> APG should work together as a group to work for the preservation of
> any records no matter what church or country they come from. Our
> religiously diversified group can make a real difference in helping
> those in charge of Catholic Church records understand the importance
> of not restricting these records. Perhaps our efforts should be
> directed more to helping those in charge understand why the sharing
> of records is so important versus an imagined crisis in the next life.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Jeanette
>

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