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Archiver > NYALBANY > 2000-07 > 0963096035


From: edward <>
Subject: Re: [NYALBANY] Historical Society Question
Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2000 15:40:35


Lyn,

Some of our local cemeteries in the Chicago area will not give blanket
information, such as a necrology for an entire cemetery, and in fact insist
on a need-to-know family relationship to the person in the cemetery before
they will go to their files. I had someone here give me a bad time over
it, so I went "downtown" to the head of the cemetery administration for
hundreds of thousands of burials. She thought I was entitled to get what I
was asking for, but in the end I did not, and it is my impression that I
stirred up a hornet's nest at the very top of the organization. Sometimes
complaining will cause an organization to clamp down and mandate a very
strict enforcement of the rules, and so must be done with great care.

I was told that at one time many public records, especially in NY State,
were practically put off limits to anyone because of people stealing
identities for purposes of applying for cash benefits to which they were
not entitled. Many applications require the maiden name of a person's
mother, which is of course easily obtained in a genealogical search.

On the other hand, someone in the office of a fairly large cemetery in an
outlying town in the Chicago area wrote out a two-page document for me
listing everything they had on the burials of one of my ancestor families.

Also, in Will County IL the historical societies compile necrologies for
cemeteries on a continuing basis, print them, place them in public
libraries, and sell them to the public. If you are looking for
consistency, you won't find it in the administrative handling of cemetery
records. In some cases, the people who give you great information are
literally putting their jobs on the line for you.

It is my impression that cemeteries can open themselves up to liability in
the release of information. If they have had a bad experience or two, they
seem to become very gun-shy.

Ed Broecker
Palos Hills IL

At 03:02 PM 7/8/00 EDT, you wrote:
>Hi, group,
>
>I've just been very surprised by a response from a historical society (not
in
>Albany) and wonder if anyone else has had the same experience.
>
>A new cemetery survey has been done of a very old cemetery near where I grew
>up. I'm related to most of the people there. This is supposed to be a very
>fine survey and contains added family connections info.
>
>I talked to a lady (happened to be the Cemetery Records person) who was at
>first reluctant to send me a copy as she didn't know if the person who did
>the survey would approve. Then she said he gave her the okay and would be
>sending it. That was WEEKS ago. After repeated inquiries by e-mail and
>repeated reassurances that she would send it -- still NOTHING!!!
>
>This person also said they are in a quandary about putting anything on a
>website due to copyright laws. (Excuse me???)
>
>I found the e-mail address for the Society at their website (which offers
>nothing of substance, by the way) and figured since she apparently won't
send
>it, I'd make a request by e-mail.
>
>I received a response for the Exec. Director that they do not make the
>records available in total. They offer a research service and would l
like a
>form.
>
>What? They expect me to pay a researcher to go through each and every name,
>some of which I don't know, to get a copy of a cemetery record? I can't
>believe it!
>
>I'm open to suggestion here. I'm too steamed to make an intelligent
>response at the moment.
>Lyn
>
>
>

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