Good for you--yes, what is this about National Archives charging so much for public
information????
Anyway can any of this be circumvented by knowing where to look--like Mormon records,
Ellis Island, etc?
I am thankful I poured over records when all it took was my time and some cents for the
copy machine!
"William C. Wiseman" <wcwiseman(a)highstream.net> wrote:
It should be made a great and high priority to put all these records on
line and for free - it IS public information (or should be) and this IS
the 'information age' and the age of the Internet.
Facts - records - should be free for the public to browse through
(unless there are some mitigating circumstances such as causing
potential harm to someone). The government, both Federal and State,
take in enough tax money and waste enough of it to afford making the old
military records available to researchers via the Internet!
I just checked some sites per this information :
(
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo....
)
from KCStadler and found I can get the compiled military records for my
Isaac and Jacob Carmack, both, of the 19th Confederate Tenn Infantry
which are available for 17 dollars each by ordering online.
SO... the records are out there, but I shouldn't have to pay for them!
As I said - a little less waste by government on stupid wars and stupid
pork-barrel projects and overpaying politicians could easily cover costs
for making all
genealogical records available on line and available for download for no
charge to the researcher. Many (most) genealogy researchers are up in
years and most certainly have to watch every penny to pay for food and
utilities and fuel!
I can also have the state of Kentucky search for military pension
records - each search (with no guarantee of success) will cost me 6
dollars. So, that would be a hit or miss endeavor! You could spend a lot
of cash should
you have the wrong county, or a misspelling, etc... the records, if on
line and browsable by researchers, would cost nothing, and the time
involved in searching would be time spent by the researcher and NOT a
government employee.
I guess you can SEE that I believe in the FREE EXCHANGE of information!
I believe we should be able to download records to our computers without
charge, and I believe all public records, military and otherwise,
should be made available on line as long as no harm can be caused by
that information. I realize it would take TIME and be quite a project to
put all this data on line, but it CAN be done and it CAN be done more
quickly than you might think!
Much of it already has been placed on line - it just needs to be freely
available for download.
I now step down from my soap box...
Bill Wiseman
KCStadler wrote:
If anyone is thinking about purchasing copies of military records or
other documents from the National Archives - do it soon! The prices are going to be sky
high!
Karen Carmack Stadler
1c. NARA Proposes a Copy Fee
A notification to all U.S. genealogists. Two rules published in the Federal Register on
Monday, 26 February 2007, relate to fees for reproductions of records at the U.S. National
Archives and Records
Administration (NARA). In the case of Civil War pension applications, the proposal is for
a 338% increase!
Here is the list of proposed increases:
Type of record, Order form, Proposed Fee
-- Passenger Arrival Lists, NATF Form 81, $25.00
-- Federal Census Requests, NATF Form 82, $25.00
-- Eastern Cherokee Applications to the Court of Claims, NATF Form 83, $25.00
-- Land Entry Records, NATF Form 84, $40.00
-- Full Pension File More Than 75 Years Old (Civil War Period), NATF Form 85 , $125.00 (a
338% increase from the present fee of $37.00!)
-- Full Pension File More Than 75 Years Old (Non-Civil War), NATF Form 85, $60.00
-- Pension Documents Packet (Selected Records), NATF Form 85, $25.00
-- Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, NATF Form 85, $25.00
-- Military Service Files More Than 75 Years Old, NATF Form 86, $25.00
Both rules are open for public comment until 27 April 2007. There's much more
information available in the Federal Register.
The link to the proposed rule, with instructions for commenting is:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo....
The link to the interim final rule is:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo....
RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Weekly E-zine
07 March 2007, Vol. 10, No. 10
(c) 1998-2007
RootsWeb.com, Inc.
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