I think the California Birth Indexes may already be closed. The time span is death certificate is about the same for me. This all bothers me & and is frustrating. DeAnne

Can anybody tell me their reason for closing down the records ????? Toni in new Zealand

There is a proposal before the California Assembly now to close the Birth & Death INDEXES ONLY and create some other type of index available at the State and County offices. The purpose is supposed to prevent Identity Theft but there is so much other information more readily available to thieves that this proposed law seems very much to be an overkill. I understand that the Government requires a Social Security No. on Death Certificates, but the US Government closes a descedent's Social Security account long before The State of California issues a Death Certificate. Last year it took me over 8 months to get a California Death Certificate. I don't have the actual proposed law at hand but anyone interested in updates can subscribe to the NORCAL-L mailing list hy sending an email to NORCAL-L- request@rootsweb.com and write the word subscribe in the body of the message. Leave the subject line blasnk. Closing all of the birth and death records has not been mentioned out here, ONLY THE INDEXES. Ruth Armstrong ----- Original Message ----- From: <Mrharveyfo@aol.com> To: <BOSTON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 6:52 PM Subject: Re: [BOSTON] Massachusetts Public Records Closing Alert! > Hi, List: I believe that California is about ready to close the birth/death > records also. Probably many states will follow suit....so, if you have any > urgent needs for records, best write for them soon. > > Barb By. > > >

Hi, List: I believe that California is about ready to close the birth/death records also. Probably many states will follow suit....so, if you have any urgent needs for records, best write for them soon. Barb By.

Hello The Massachusets Genealogical Council (MGC) board http://massgencouncil.home.attbi.com/index.htm held an emergency meeting on Friday July 12 in Waltham MA to review the text of an alarming, and recently introduced, Massachusetts House of Representatives bill H5158 (see links below for issues, status and contact information). The most pressing aspect of H5158, on preliminary review, is that it would close marriage and death records since 1950, as well as birth records after 1910, to public access - including their indicies! MGC is recommending that all Massachusetts residents contact their Representative and that all non-resident Massachusetts researchers contact a Massachusetts resident to represent their interests - immediately as the formal sessions close on July 31st - but impromptu sessions have sometimes been used to pass such legislation! ( see http://www.state.ma.us/legis/repdis01.htm for districts) The general content of the legislative protest letters should at least cover the following points, be sincere, personalized and not appear in a form letter format: ==================================================================== Dear (Representative Name): The Birth, Marriage and Death records (Vital Records) of the Commonwealth have always been open to the public with few specific exceptions. House Bill 5158, currently reported out to the Committee on House Rules, would close Birth Records after 1910 and Marriage and Death Records since 1950 to public access. We ask that you encourage further study of this Bill by the Committee on House Rules and that you vote AGAINST this bill should it come to floor vote. H5158 would affect every citizen of the Commonwealth. Among other things it would: 1) block access to recent death records so that family medical histories could not be ascertained; 2) increase expenses for persons needing to prove legitimate access to the Vital Records; 3) not affect the risks of identity fraud or theft which does not occur from personal inspection of the Vital Records. Again I/we urge you to defeat H5158. Sincerely, Name Address Contact Info =================================================================== Additional notes on the preliminary review of this bill: The Massachusetts bill H5158 is purportedly a rewrite of H132 (see http://www.state.ma.us/legis/bills/house/h00132.htm ). However, the full text of H5158 is not yet online and the MGC expects that further line by line examination of the H5158 printed text (36 pages) will uncover other issues of concern. In contrast, the MGC has been working on the Senate bill S2302 which may be reviewed at http://www.state.ma.us/legis/bills/st02302.htm All recent medical studies point to the statistical and anecdotal importance of medical information for multiple generations - and beyond immediate lineal or lateral descent lines. The H5158 bill could also remove access to the actual primary source record. It contains such items as "... Such examination, at the descretion of the Custodian, may be from an automated database. ..." The Birth, Marriage and Death records (Vital Records) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have always been open to the public with few specific exceptions (see http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/gl-66-toc.htm ). However, House Bill 5158, currently reported out to the Committee on House Rules, would close Birth Records after 1910 and Marriage and Death Records since 1950 to public access - as of January 1, 2004 when the inquirer must be proven to be ONLY the individual in question or the " spouse, children, parent as named on birth record, legal guardian, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, executor, authorized legal representative or authorized genealogist designated by one of the aforementioned persons in writing". Additionally, removing the indices from the public access will preclude researchers from even being able to narrow down the likely candidates for detailed record inspection - increasing the Catch-22 of having to prove a 2 generation or less direct lineal connection to the records in question - when that is the question! The H5158 bill does not provide funds for the expenditures of government agencies that would have to shoulder the new custodian and adminisitrative responsiblities for records archiving and access validation and/or refusal - such that even what the Custodian considers legitimate access request may not be administered in a timely fashion if the determination of legitimate access is not a funded administration expense. Identity fraud or theft issue is a claimed goal H5158 bill without regard to the actual identity fraud methods used and documented by numerous investigations - either in the old fashioned "complete fabrication", "trash scouring" and wallet/home robbery, newspaper obituary targeting and institutional insider records misuse - or the advent of the Internet and other electronic transaction interceptions. Identity fraud thieves are not prone to the methodical, time consuming and formal task of searching and requesting the Vital Records. You may monitor the status of this bill and check for the full text release at http://www.state.ma.us/legis/history/h05158.htm House, No. 5158 - Bill relating to birth, marriage and death records. 06/20/02 H Reported from the committee on Government Regulations 06/20/02 H New draft of H132 06/20/02 H Bill reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on RULES OF THE TWO BRANCHES, ACTING CONCURRENTLY -HJ 1907 07/11/02 H Discharged to the committee on House Rules People who have representatives who are on these committees may find further information here: HOUSE RULES Room 167 State House Boston, MA 02133 Telephone: (617) 722-2692 It shall be the duty of the committee on Rules to recommend special orders for the scheduling and consideration of legislation on the floor of the House. Said committee shall be authorized to make ecommendations and propose changes in the rules for the purpose of improving and expediting the business and procedures of the House of Representatives and its committees. http://www.state.ma.us/legis/comm/h33.htm JOINT COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS Room 472 State House Boston, MA 02133 Telephone: (617) 722-2120 It shall be the duty of the committee on Government Regulations to consider all matters concerning public utilities, gambling, the racing industry, the registration of various trades or professions, the issuance of licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages and such other matters as may be referred. Members appointed to the committee: Sen. Morrissey of Norfolk and Plymouth Pacheco of First Plymouth and Bristol Joyce of Suffolk and Norfolk Fargo of Fifth Middlesex Baddour of Third Essex Hedlund of Plymouth and Norfolk Rep. Bosley of North Adams Ciampa of Somerville Caron of Springfield Candaras of Wilbraham C. A. Murphy of Burlington Festa of Melrose Nangle of Lowell Rivera of Springfield Bradley of Hingham Brown of Wrentham Hill of Ipswich http://www.state.ma.us/legis/comm/j17.htm ============================================================ The MGC welcomes all questions from interested researchers, as well as shared experiences from other jurisdictions dealing with ill-concieived, reactionary measures to identity fraud, privacy or records preservation and access issues. Please send your questions and suggestions to info@massgencouncil.org If you are among the millions who claim early ancestors in Massachusetts - prior to the proposed 1910/1950 exclusions - and do not believe you will be impacted by such a law, please consult with your contemporary cousins and resident collateral lines. Your family will be affected! Thank you for your interest and support in this matter. Sharon Sergeant Program Director, Massachusetts Genealogical Council http://massgencouncil.home.attbi.com/index.htm __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes http://autos.yahoo.com

Hello Everyone; As most of you are aware the question of genealogical frauds and hoaxes must be of concern since to genealogists and researchers since so much information out there is quite questionable. We have several pages on our web sites that will be of great help to you in understanding what the problems are. We have updated one of the pages in our Fraudulent Lineages area. The page in question is titled; BEWARE OF THE SOURCE HOAX Many of you are quite aware of some of some of the ways frauds and hoaxes are committed and some of you may need to visit your lines to see if possibly they may contain some of the situations we report on. The URL for this page is; http://www.linkline.com/personal/xymox/fraud/hoax.htm There are many other pages listed within this section and all may be viewed freely by everyone. The very best to you and yours. Harold Oliver America's First Families

http://home.pacbell.net/spmorse/census/ Obtaining EDs for the 1930 Census in One Step (Large Cities) ----- Original Message ----- From: <AMBullard@aol.com> Can someone please tell me what the ENUMERATION NUMBER would be for this area of NEWTON MA in 1930? 94 Union Watertown; Newton (including Nonantum and North Village) 299 Washington. This was the address listed for a CLYDE G. HOLMES listed in the 1929 directory. I believe this may be my long lost and never known paternal grandfather. You can bet I have my fingers crossed on this one. Been looking for so many years. Thanks so much for any assistance with this. Arlene in OR

In a message dated 7/6/2002 6:40:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, AMBullard@aol.com writes: << ELSA LAVONNE WILLIAMS HOLMES >> Dear Arlene, Go to URL: http://www.google.com/ and Search ON: ELSA LAVONNE WILLIAMS HOLMES Cheers, Bob

--part1_192.9679438.2a58cbe5_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --part1_192.9679438.2a58cbe5_boundary Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-path: <AMBullard@aol.com> From: AMBullard@aol.com Full-name: AMBullard Message-ID: <f4.1e0c0e92.2a58ca06@aol.com> Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 18:32:38 EDT Subject: ED# 1930 census NEWTON MA To: MASUFFOL-L@rootsweb.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 7.0 for Windows US sub 10509 Can someone please tell me what the ENUMERATION NUMBER would be for this area of NEWTON MA in 1930? 94 Union Watertown; Newton (including Nonantum and North Village) 299 Washington. This was the address listed for a CLYDE G. HOLMES listed in the 1929 directory. I believe this may be my long lost and never known paternal grandfather. You can bet I have my fingers crossed on this one. Been looking for so many years. Thanks so much for any assistance with this. Arlene in OR --part1_192.9679438.2a58cbe5_boundary--

After so many years I have found my paternal grandparents listed on the 1920 Boston Ma census. They are CLYDE GEORGE HOLMES b. 1889 VT stage electrician. 31 years of age. ELSA LAVONNE WILLIAMS HOLMES b, Nov. 1896 IL actress. 24 years of age. Where might I find possible information of the theaters, vaudeville, etc in the Boston area in the 1920's. Any thing on line or accessible by writing? Thanks Arlene

City/Town Directories and Voting Lists The large collection dates from the first Boston directory of 1789 and covers most Massachusetts communities. The last Boston directory was published in 1981. Around this time directories for other Massachusetts cities and towns cease to be published, supplanted by the telephone book as a listing for a town's residents, businesses, organizations, and services. The collection is weak in recent publications. For more current street and voter lists, contact either the Boston Public Library (617 536-5400) or the town hall or public library of the community that is being researched. Directories contain a list of persons, organized by last name, residing in a town or city. However, some directories (including "Blue Books") do contain house guides, which contain street listings. These guides, the majority of which are found in twentieth-century directories, are useful when looking for the residents of a particular address. <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/houseguide.htm">A List of City Directories Containing A House Guide (49KB)</A> is in Special Collections and is now available online. Voting and street lists are also organized by street name. The Department's directory holdings are as follows: <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/Dir.htm">Directories A-D (69KB)</A>; <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/Dir2.htm"> Directories E-I (44KB)</A>; <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/Dir3.htm">Directories J-NEW M (49KB)</A>; <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/Dir4.htm">Directories NEW S-SHEF (49KB)</A>; <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/Dir5.htm">Directories SHEL-WA (41KB)</A>; <A HREF="http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/Dir6.htm">Directories WE-Y (41KB)</A>. This has the information re special collections at the State Library of Massachusetts......it has voting lists from 1789 to 1981 arranged alphabetically. http://www.state.ma.us/lib/sc/sc.htm ....it is worth checking out.... Janice Boston

karin, you might want to look into the chelsea naval hospital which was located what is now called admirals hill in chelsea. it was closed down in 1974 by pres nixon as well as the charlestown naval yard. all those records were sent to brighton marine hospital in brighton mass.. this naval hospital was different than the sailors and soldiers home lisa o

the state library is the law library at the State House in Boston. I think you want the state archives at Columbia Point. SEE http://www.state.ma.us/sec/arc/ KILCHREEST@aol.com wrote: > How do I search the database for the Mass. State Library for old directories > or voting lists? Must this be done in person? > > Thanks. > > Karin A. Joyce > > ==== BOSTON Mailing List ==== > Order Birth, Marriage and Death Records from Boston City Hall: > http://www.ci.boston.ma.us/registry/registry1.asp > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 -- See my surname list at: http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/surnames.htm The Richardson Memorial CD-Rom at http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/cd.htm Home page: http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/ Most useful web sites: http://www.mindspring.com/~dcrichardson/useful_sites.htm David C. and Emma J. Richardson 130 Gingercake Ct. Fayetteville GA 30214-7600 Emma's E-mail ejrichardson@mindspring.com

Where would I find information on a soldier from Boston who was a verteran of the spanish American War? I don't know anything about his service or company. He was born in South Boston in 1876. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Marianne ----- Original Message ----- From: <BOSTON-D-request@rootsweb.com> To: <BOSTON-D@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 11:00 PM Subject: BOSTON-D Digest V02 #98

Hi Karen, Deaths in MA are book indexed for 5 year intervals and are for the entire state so it doesn't matter that you don't know the city/county where your ancestor died. Rootsweb has a list of volunteers who are willing to do lookups for death records so perhaps if you contact one of them and request a 10 yr. search, you might get lucky and find the information you seek. That said I hope his name isn't John Smith or something so common! Good luck in your search. Joanne

I'm not sure how late they go, but many Naturalization records can be found at Federal Archives, Trapelo Road, Waltham Mass. They will copy it for you and mail it to you. I believe they only charge copying fees, it's been awhile. -- --- Ginny Chung <gchung@mindspring.com> http://www.mindspring.com/~gchung/tree.htm - Main page http://www.mindspring.com/~gchung/CemeteryMain.html - Mass Cemetery Transcriptions http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gchung/brochterbeck/Main.htm - Brochterbeck Germany ==============================================

In a message dated 7/1/02 7:18:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Genediger2@aol.com writes: > > Soldier's > > and Sailors Home in nearby Chelsea > I too made a similar association. Perhaps you should check > Chelsea,Kennebec, Maine, there was a Naval Hospital there. > "In Dec 1894 he was appointed Commissary and Quartermaster of the Soldier's > Home atTogus (SCC). Died at the Soldiers Home 3 Apr 1910 age 68, in > Chelsea,Maine (cwcard, post Civil War addresses at MSA, obit). perhaps you need the adjudent general and veterans services of mass jim all denning-dever-cogan in mass-some malone-carroll-mcguire-doherty-mcneil-piscopo-mazzola-heslin-martini-feddis-fa rley-dennen-dinan-fredricks- ____________________________________ "we go to school to learn the words of fools" bob dylan

In a message dated 7/1/2002 4:11:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, BOSTON-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: > Soldier's > and Sailors Home in nearby Chelsea I too made a similar association. Perhaps you should check Chelsea,Kennebec, Maine, there was a Naval Hospital there. "In Dec 1894 he was appointed Commissary and Quartermaster of the Soldier's Home atTogus (SCC). Died at the Soldiers Home 3 Apr 1910 age 68, in Chelsea,Maine (cwcard, post Civil War addresses at MSA, obit). " Barbara Newman Finizia Born in Rhode Island now in Florida http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=genediger2

In a message dated 6/30/02 1:47:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time, KILCHREEST@aol.com writes: > > Does anyone on the list know where the Old Navy Home or Old Navy Hospital > existed in the Boston area prior to 1909? I am not requesting info on the > Chelsea Home for Soldiers and Sailors. Their records don't exist and it > was > suggested we find the Old Navy home that was in MA. My ggrandfather lived > in > Malden, MA at the time and it would make sense he ended up in the Soldier's > and Sailors Home in nearby Chelsea but there is no record of his death in > Chelsea records, Revere records or Malden records. He was a sailor from > Machiasport, ME and he died before his wife who died in 1909. > > Thanks for your help. > > try the chelsea mailing list machelsea-l jim listowner all denning-dever-cogan in mass-some malone-carroll-mcguire-doherty-mcneil-piscopo-mazzola-heslin-martini-feddis-fa rley-dennen-dinan-fredricks- ____________________________________ "we go to school to learn the words of fools" bob dylan

How do I search the database for the Mass. State Library for old directories or voting lists? Must this be done in person? Thanks. Karin A. Joyce