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From: Sharon Sergeant <>
Subject: MASSACHUSETTS RECORDS ACCESS ALERT
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 21:38:50 -0400


Hello
This is a followup message to help with FAQs -

This is not old news, it is yet another immediate incentive to remove
vital records in Massachusetts from public records.

Researchers who are not Massachusetts residents, but do rely on
genealogical resources in Massachusetts are urged to contact the
sponsors of these bills and remind them of the tourist dollars generated
by out of state researchers.

The August 30 - Sept 2 2006 Federation of Genealogical Societies
Conference logo is a good reminder that this event brings the world to
Boston:
FGS NEHGS - Birthplace of American Genealogy - Boston 2006
http://www.fgs.org/2006conf/FGS-2006.htm
[don't forget that July 1 early registration savings!]

If you have living-voting relatives in Masachusetts, contact them also.

Identity Theft is a serious problem. The credit card industry lapses are
decades old, but are now a larger problem with the easy stealing of
large government and commercial databases, as well as the proliferation
of counterfeit documents. However, vital records is not the cause.

And even the measures that are now used to thwart thieves by checking
them out in public records would be closed - so criminals will be harder
to detect.

Ask the hard questions - why focus on a potentially small problem and
not address the big problems?


MASSACHUSETTS GENEALOGICAL COUNCIL (MGC)
P.O. Box 5393
Cochituate, MA 01778
www.massgencouncil.org

ALERTALERTALERT

MGC urges all genealogists who care about access to vital records to act
now!

Legislative bills (H-3642, H-3643, and H-3644, petitioned by Plymouth
Rep. Thomas J. O’Brien, et al.), currently pending in the Massachusetts
House Ways and Means Committee, are being pushed for passage within two
weeks. They will close public records that have been open for nearly 400
years as well as the indexes to them.

We all must contact our Massachusetts state Representatives and Senators
to oppose these three (O’Brien) bills for the following reasons:

The bills call for restricting access to all birth records since 1915
and all marriage and death records since 1955. These records are
currently open public records and are the entry point for genealogical
and medical history research.
Restricting public access to the indexes of these records is
unprecedented. It will deny use by all non-governmental individuals:
researchers in genealogy, medical history, probate heirs, banks,
journalists, and historians.

Contact should be made immediately. We stopped these bills in 2003 – but
now support for them in the legislature is formidable.

If YOU don’t speak now, these bills will change the face of genealogy in
Massachusetts and beyond.
MOST EFFECTIVE: a signed letter with your reasons for opposing these
closures, using your own words.
To view a sample letter for your legislators, click here
http://home.comcast.net/~massgencouncil/ConstituentLetter.htm

ALSO: telephone calls, face to face meetings, and e-mails.

SHARE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT: urge your sympathetic relatives, friends,
neighbors, and the professionals listed above to do the same.

Contact information for your representatives and senators is available at:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/
your town clerk
the state house at (617) 722-2000
the postal address is:
Representative (or Senator) _______, State House, Room _______, Boston,
MA 02133.

If you have any questions, please respond to Sharon Sergeant, MGC
Director of Programs, and member of the MGC Civil Records Committee or
visit our website at
www.massgencouncil.org





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