Monday, November 28, 2005

Records Access Legislation, FGS-NGS-RPA, IAJGS-PRMAC-ECHO (Alphabet Soup)

Sunday evening November 27th there was a tele-conference regarding “Records Access Legislation” hosted by Ancestral Manor. If you are interested in finding out what the proposed “regulations” for the new law against anti-terrorism are going to be, I would suggest you bookmark the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society (FGS-NGS) website under their Records Preservation and Access Committee (RP&A) at www.fgs.org/rpa . As the various rules and regulations come out in a short while, this committee will be publishing them on their website and these regulations will affect all genealogists, so be aware and be educated so that you may be heard!

While you are at the above link to FGS-NGS click on their Formal Actions category and read the article by Dr. Robert L. Rafford, professional genealogist, entitled “Identity Theft and Vital Records”.

Another group that is heavily involved in monitoring these regulations is the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS), through their Public Records Access Monitoring Committee (PRMAC). Read the article on-line in their publication “ECHO” written in September 2005 by Jan Meisels Allen, IAJGS Board Member, at http://www.iajgs.org/echo/echoissues.htm .

There is a plethora of gossip and hearsay that has been bandied about of late and it will serve us all well to see the “actual” wording of the regulations before we jump to conclusions. Apparently the government wants to close access to Birth Certificates (at least,) so that terrorists may not use them to obtain a Driver’s License, Passport, or other forms of identification. I will be putting some links up on my webpage at www.ny-genes.com that should benefit those of you who might be interested in following these matters.

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