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Archiver > CountyCork > 2002-04 > 1017817792


From: "mkirk" <>
Subject: Re: [Cork] FW: Access to Irish Vital Records
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 23:09:52 -0800
References: <000201c1da6e$46901530$c1f5d03f@Miller>


Does anyone know if it is as effective to send an email to the contacts
listed in the link below or FAX or regular mail/post? All I have are Irish
ancestors to research, so it is of great interest to me.
Thanks,
Margaret
KIRK/SCULLY (MULLEN), REID/TAHANY
MEEHAN/SAVAGE>QUINLAN, TONER/KEARNEY>MURRAY, IRVING



----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry A. Miller" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 9:46 AM
Subject: [Cork] FW: Access to Irish Vital Records


Got this email from one of my Irish family name lists. Thought everyone
could contribute/help, if you haven't seen/heard this already.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Some of you may recall taking part in a petition drive a couple of years
ago having to do with improving access to records at the General
Register Office in Dublin. The petition was circulated at the behest of
the Council of Irish Genealogical Organizations, but the results were
never widely made public. The petition, and the customer comments were
presented to selected ministers in the relevant departments, but not
given wide release at the time in hopes that direct persuasion would
have the desired effect. Alas, not only has the situation not gotten
better, it has gotten worse, and is due to get a LOT worse yet if
proposed legislation is allowed to go through.

One of the provisions of the proposed legislation is the removal of
public access to original birth, death and marriage records in the
superintendent registrar's offices around the country. It's not clear
but what the new law might also withdraw permission for use of microfilm
copies of these records at LDS Libraries around the world.

But what bodes most ill for future genealogists is that records will be
identified by a national identity number which will allow government
departments to share information and link data on an individual without
the need for identifying details. A death record, for example, would
exclude information such as the deceased's place of birth, parents'
names, spouse's name, or in the case of a married woman, maiden name.
The new version of the death record will, however, include the
"occupation" of spouse or parents. It doesn't matter to the Irish
government what your grandfather's name was, just what he did for a
living!

Seriously folks, this is not an April Fool's joke. Please take a look
at http://world.std.com/~ahern/CIGOrept.htm and consider writing to The
Irish Times, and other Irish and Irish-American papers to call attention
to this issue. Communicate your concerns to the relevant government
ministers. Irish genealogists face enough hurdles as it is. Don't let
them make it even worse.



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