From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Mon Jul 24 08:12:12 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k6OECCjb021026; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 08:12:12 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k6OEC9Bm016250 for ; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 08:12:09 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k6OBXmFI014472 for ; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 07:33:48 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k6OBXm05014471 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 07:33:48 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k6O7FXFI013286 for ; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:15:33 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k6O9rgI5013885 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:53:42 -0600 X-Envelope-From: floridasearch@tampabay.rr.com Mon Jul 24 03:53:41 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k6O9rbjb013872 for ; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:53:37 -0600 Received: from ms-smtp-01.tampabay.rr.com (ms-smtp-01.tampabay.rr.com [65.32.5.131]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k6O9rZAv018069 for ; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 03:53:36 -0600 Received: from davidson143f82 (46-45.35-65.tampabay.res.rr.com [65.35.45.46]) by ms-smtp-01.tampabay.rr.com (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k6O9rTSB018189; Mon, 24 Jul 2006 05:53:34 -0400 (EDT) Old-Return-Receipt-To: "Alvie L. Davidson CG" From: "Alvie L. Davidson CG" To: Cc: Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 05:53:29 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-reply-to: <200607240743.k6O7hNWR025068@lists5.rootsweb.com> X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2869 Thread-Index: Acau9dWSMxlsS7Q+Qx2lxK6VARHQawADvGmA Disposition-Notification-To: "Alvie L. Davidson CG" X-Virus-Scanned: Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Vital Records Good morning Shirley and all you good Rooters, I know this argument about identity theft has permeated the genealogy world for a long time. The "powers in government" think the only way to deal with this issue is to simply close or closely restrict access to vital records. As we have already seen by the recent thefts of computers and data the closure of vital records has not hampered identity thieves. I cannot believe a person would walk into the state vital records office of any state and ask for issuance of 50 different birth records in order to use them for creating false identifications. This same person might break into an office and steal a computer hard drive containing 2,000,000 entries of personal data without any thought. The vital record might be used to create a false identity but many public records are used everyday which provide almost as much information. Has anyone ever seen the obituary section of the Salt Lake Tribune? Almost all notices contain a personal genealogy of that deceased person. I know a kind researcher in Miami who has indexed all the vital bits of information from the Miami Herald newspapers from the very beginning including birth announcements, death notices, and obituaries, etc. This leads to accessing the actual announcement in the newspaper which is a fairly good substitute for a birth or death. Of course, these newspaper announcements will not suffice with the U S State Department in lieu of a birth certificate for a passport application but for simple research purposes they will be better than nothing. WE all know they are considered secondary evidence of proof. Our local newspaper provides a fairly good obituary including cause of death for the decedent but the state government removes the cause of death from the actual death certificate unless the requestor is close kin. Some states are beginning to ease up on vital records access somewhat since they realize this lockdown effort is not the solution to all problems but simply created other problems. Recently I need 9 birth certificates from OH to offer as proof to a probate court in Florida that these 9 children were indeed children of a deceased individual who had deserted his family over 40 years prior to his demise. A letter to the vital records office explaining the need and a copy of the court papers for the probate was all they required. Just my two cents worth. Alvie L. Davidson CG CG and Certified Genealogist are Service Marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists used under license after periodic evaluations by the Board.