Gloria - I'll just throw this out once again for those who may have joined the project after the last time I posted.... Data contained in LDS microfilms is done through a copyright agreement with the LDS Church's Family History Dept. and the entity that holds the originals. These are NOT considered in the "public domain" as such. In order to extract, abstract, index, etc. any of these records (even if they are just court records from your county, marriages, wills, etc.), you must first get permission from the LDS Family History Dept.'s Copyright Office. They are generally more than willing to give it, but it is a necessary step to help prevent the FHL from legal problems should a particular entity not give permission for further indexing or some such thing that we as patrons reading the film (for personal research reasons) are not aware of. The LAST thing any of would want to do is jeopardize the FHL's reputation or standing amongst those whose good graces we all stand in need of (i.e., county court houses and other repositories/donors of these original records) or put them in any legal trouble. Here is the information I received from Kathy Warburton of the Family History Dept.'s Copyright Office several months back: <start> Before I respond to your request, I must make you aware of some policies of the Family and Church History Department concerning appropriate uses of materials in our collection. Due to the increasing publication of these materials on the Internet, we are having to become more strict in enforcing these policies to keep the department from being in violation of our contractual agreements with the donors of the records in our collection. Records held in the collection of the Family History Library and Family History Centers are intended for non-commercial personal family history research only. Use of the records beyond the scope of non-commercial personal family history research may violate contractual agreements with the records custodians and/or copyright laws. In order to be sure that we are in compliance with contractual obligations and copyright laws, the following uses of the records in our collection are not permitted: 1. Creating indexes or extracts of multiple entries or of entire record sets, 2. Copying or reproduction of multiple pages (beyond the limits of "fair use.") For certain materials for which the Genealogical Society of Utah or the Family History Department possesses unrestricted rights of use and publication, an officer of the Society may approve indexing projects in exchange for unrestricted rights to use and publish the resulting indexes. To obtain such approval, please provide full details in writing, including your name and address, the author and title of the materials to be indexes along with all film numbers proposed to be indexed and a full description lf the purpose of the index and any proposed publication (including publication to the Internet) to: President, The Genealogical Society of Utah 50 East North Temple Street, 5th Floor Salt Lake City UT 84150 Please keep this policy in mind before beginning any indexing or extraction projects involving microfilms from our collection or before posting such projects that you may have already completed. A notice of this policy has been sent to all family history centers and should now be posted in the centers. We would appreciate your cooperation in ensuring that the Department is able to comply with its contractual agreements with the donors of these materials. I wish you every success in your family history efforts. If you have any questions, please contact me. Sincerely, Kathy Warburton Copyright Coordinator Family and Church History Department The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Phone: 801-240-2049 Fax: 801-240-2494 Email: fhd-copyright@ldschurch.org <end> I hope this clears up any misconceptions or confusion any of ya'll have about their policies. If not, feel free to contact Ms. Warburton! Thanks, Mary Kathryn Kozy mkozy@attglobal.net Mitchell Co., GAGenWeb CC At 07:52 PM 5/21/2003 -0400, you wrote: >If each CC ordered one film per month...about $3.60....from a local LDS >Church/FHL and transcribed the indexes for Wills, Marriages, Warranty Deeds, >Warrantor and Warrantee indexes they would in a years time have a multitude >of material on their site that would allow the visitors to our pages find >their ancestors name and then the person could order a copy of that deed, >will, marriage record. No professional would be needed to search those >records (and I worked as a professional genealogist for some years). No >search fee would be charged for looking up records by clerks..as the index >would give each researcher what they needed to order a copy of those >records. There is no need to abstract or transcribe the records. If just >the indexes were done that would be a wonderful gift to the genealogy >community. Now why haven't I done that? Well when I first adopted GA >counties I was also preparing and researching to write a book which grew >into what could now be two books about the Lumbee Indian Tribe and all of >the families. For over ten years I ordered "all" of the microfilmed public >records for Robeson County, NC and also records from Bladen, Sampson, >Lenoir, Guilford, Cumberland, and many other NC Counties, and then went up >into VA and ordered VA filmed records and then made several trips to the >areas to search in the courthouses and the State Archives to find more that >might have missed being filmed. So that took a primary until about eight >months ago when I felt I had gone as far with the research as I would go in >my lifetime. Will leave more for others to pick up where I left off. But >now I have started working on the GA Counties that I host...With Ben Hill >the records have not been filmed as of yet...but I will make a trip up there >within this year to copy those indexes...Luckily Irwin County records have >been microfilmed and are available..and a cousin has already done a lot of >those transcriptions which he will be providing and what he doesn't provide >I will do.. The Ben Hill County Newspapers have all been microfilmed and I >plan soon to order my first of many films and those I will purchase at about >$24- $28.00 per film..forget correct amount...and I do have a film reader >and a fiche reader at home...my files are full of copies of original >documents from VA and NC records but very few of GA records and that is >because when I began hosting the GA Counties I was in the middle of another >labor of love which is now completed and my time and attention will be on >the GA sites..but any of us can take the time to place the indexes online >and then no one will need to have a professional go into those records. What >I propose we do will take years to accomplish and there is an occasional >need for a professional and they get in touch with us or a person will >contact us and request the name of a professional in which ever case I will >be happy to provide that person with the name of someone who can help but as >for the County Pages I believe with all my heart that they are not for >commercial use...a special page with commercial options in research...that >is fine...but allow the viewer the option of going there is that is what >they want and not misrepresenting links and such by just sending them there. >As someone who did make money at one time from professional genealogy I >never took a GA commission...but only in NC, PA, and SC and WV....just my >principals and what I feel was the right thing to do...with GA research I >did it for free in all cases....a lot of our visitors are elderly folks with >limited incomes or disabled people and those who have pcs but can't afford >the extras, and all are unable to travel... those are the ones who benefit >the most from our project..Can we be proud of our selves if we send them to >a commercial site thinking they are going to find real records that are free >of charge only to find they have arrived at a paying site that they don't >have the money to subscribe to...sorry I can't do that...But that is just my >opinion....but free is what the project is all about and free is how it >should remain...Gloria..... > > > >==== GAGEN Mailing List ==== >USGenWeb's motto is - Volunteers dedicated to free, online information.