Maybe one of the things we need to do VERY STRONGLY is to encourage the government to microfilm these original records if they are going to move them all to one repository. We know that too many important records (1890 census, many military records from WWI, etc) have been destroyed because of fires, etc. in government repositories. By not having ones' eggs in one basket, one doesn't lose everything if the building goes up in flames. If they feel that they need to do it for cost cutting, then they also need to ensure that it isn't going to prevent access to those records by John Q Public either because they're harder to get to--OR--because they get wiped out in a disaster. Karen Karen