Hi all,
I was just alerted this evening to the existence of bill SB818
"Destruction of will files" in the Virginia state senate:
<
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?ses=031&typ=bil&val=S...
The person who informed me about this did so via messages posted on the
message boards which were then gatewayed to the mailing lists, but the
message board messages have subsequently been removed by RootsWeb staff,
either manually or automatically (not sure which is the case here).
One of the posts I would have deleted myself, because it was directed
specifically to the legislators rather than the family history
researchers. But the other one I would have left on the board.
I have written to all 40 senators expressing my opposition to this
bill. It will take longer to write to all the representatives, but I
will do a bit at a time.
My message would not make a good model for the rest of you, since I made
direct reference to my great uncle, Charles Thomas Moses, who was a
state senator in Virginia until his death in 1964.
I did however suggest that, rather than destroying the will files, they
be provided to the Library of Virginia, along with the necessary funding
to turn them into digital images. I doubt that this would happen, but
it never hurts to suggest a positive move....
-- Mary Taffet
Prince Edward County Coordinator
mdtaffet(a)syr.edu