Thanks for George and Ramona for their responses and suggestions. George I cannot imagine clerks allowing anyone to just take at will old records from the courthouses. Frankly, I think a clerk who allows such a practice should be jailed and heavily fined! Ramona, I thank you for your husband's suggestion to go to the judge of the court of that county. I will look into this. This is a suggestion that other researchers who have had the experience of being deprived of copies of documents do the same. To all researchers, I believe it behooves us to begin now to contact, lobby and pressure our public officials to provide utmost protection of these old documents which is in reality, part of our heritage. At the same time, I feel the law should require county offices to provide an alternate method for providing copies of the fragile documents. After all how much is involved to provide a photo-copier which makes copies from above, or some type scanner which unloads to a disk and one can purchase to take home, or a camera capable to making an image of the document. I agree that the public should not be deprived of having copies of public documents which are made, housed and maintained with our tax dollars. From the responses I have received on this matter, it seems that we as researchers are coming into an era that will require some effort on our part to fight abuse and distribution of these old records, to require our public officials to protect and maintain the records and to continue to allow the public the privileges of obtaining copies by some means. These day, its seems someone is always screaming about some sort of discrimination! Well, I say we researchers are being discriminated against when we are denied the right to have copies of the documents we need, while others are allowed free access to the more modern records. Researchers, we need to wake up to what is happening and try to "nip in the bud" this growing trend. Eugenia "George W. Page" <gwpage@erols.com> wrote: I had a similar experience several years ago in a county (un-named) in central PA when they allowed me to go to the basement and go through boxes of old documents, some dated in the 1700s, to take whatever I wanted. I found court appointment orders with my relatives name listed in the proceedings! I wonder if Romona's husband is of the opinion that his suggested tactic would work with the "Declaration of Independence" hoisted for public viewing in a special glass case daily in the U.S. National Archives in Wash., D.C.? GWP ____________ At 03:19 AM 2/2/2001 +0000, you wrote: >I certainly sympathize with not being able to copy old documents. I >understand the necessity of protecting them. However, ... NO public >official can legally deny a copy of any "public" records. It's a >fundamental right to obtain copies of any and all public records at >reasonable costs, times,and places. We do not have a right to just walk >in and demand a copy at any time. However, legally we have a right to >access. >My husband, who is an attorney, said that if you should encounter this >problem in the future, you should go to the Judge's office who is >responsible for that particular court and explain the problem to his/her >bailiff who in turn will relay the information to the judge and the copies >will be released in accordance with law. > >That said, we do need to be careful and try and protect these old >documents and I think it would probably be easier to get the scanner >pen. Of course, I'm not sure what is worse, not being able to get a copy >from a book, or to be handed the original marriage license, as I was in >one county in Tennessee and told that I could have it. I was shocked, and >questioned the clerk, and they said they did it all the time. So I am in >possession of it, and no one will ever be able to look upon it again in >that courthouse. So sad.... > >Ramona > >searching Gibson, Caldwell, Edwards, Brown, Collins, Beets, Beeler, >Croushore, Englebrite/Engebretson >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > >==== BROWN Mailing List ==== >contact list manager at judjack@rocketmail.com > >============================== >Ancestry.com Genealogical Databases >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist2.asp >Search over 2500 databases with one easy query! ==== BROWN Mailing List ==== contact list manager at judjack@rocketmail.com ============================== Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history learning and how-to articles on the Internet. http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.netaddress.com/?N=1