> Others have pointed out procedures to follow when attempting to > correct public records. I stand by my statement that no reputable > genealogist would take it upon himself/herself to change an official > document. It may be difficult, but records may be changed. My own brother's > birth was recorded in the county where the doctor lived, and not in the > county of the birth. My brother didn't know this until he asked for a birth > certificate needed to obtain a passport. He succeeded in deleting the birth > in one county and adding it to the correct county, but it did take time and > effort. The processes involved in getting an official record legally changed vary greatly from one county and state to another. If someone really wants to have this done for whatever reason, you will need to go to the office handling that particular record (most often the County Clerk) and find out what their requirements are. For example, last summer I went to the Court House in Cambridge, Henry Co, IL to obtain a copy of my grandmother's birth record. Henry Co, in it's early record keeping days was somewhat "slack" on recording a person's NAME on birth records. Many records were recorded only as "female child" and the parents names, the date, etc. My grandmother, Alice Woodward Martin (a former Fredonia resident so this is "on topic in case the list police are feeling their oats) was one of these recorded only as "female child". Henry Co IL did something very unique and I was amazed! I had with me other documents related to my grandmother-a copy of the marriage license application for my grandparents and my grandmother's obituary, as well as the obituaries of her parents. What Henry Co did was make copies of each of these items, placed them in the file with her original certificate, fixed her name on the Index and, when they made the official copy of her birth certificate for me, they flipped the copy over and ran a copy of her obituary stating her date of birth etc. on the other side of it. They then initialed it and put the official stamp on it. Should anyone in the future go there looking for the birth of Alice Woodward, daughter of Richard & Eliza Lamb Woodward, they will now be able to find her on the index and obtain the right document. Hey, my mom's first name is spelled wrong on her Muscatine Co birth certificate, my MIDDLE name is different on the State birth certificate than it is on the one issued by the hospital...things happen! NOW, I must have missed the beginning of this thread somehow, so I don't know what the incident which started it was. If the person was merely asking that something TRANSCRIBED be changed, my suggestion would be just to add a correction note at the bottom of the transcription indicating that a certain item is in question and the alternate information. If the person was asking that an official record in a court house or other government office be altered, I'd suggest they find out from the specific office in question what they require to amend the record. As for what has been going on on the list, as a listowner of four lists myself, my policy on those lists is that if you have a problem with someone's public behavior, you write PRIVATELY to the list owner, state your problem, and then the list owner handles it IN private. I have several folks from the GS on my Henry Co IL list but they would never DREAM of jumping in and telling someone else on the list in public what to do. It must be working because I've never had a single flame war on any of the lists I run, never had anyone feel the need to apologise in public for any indiscretions, real or imagined. Also, unrelated, I've added about 600 new names in Muscatine Co cemeteries in the past 3-4 days, so if your Louisa family members may have been buried in Muscatine Co, you might want to go check the lists again. http://www.rootsweb.com/~iamusca2/index.html The Original Muscatine Co IA Genealogy Home Page And one more thing--does anyone have a female Shellabarger b. OH married to a Johann or John Grim/Grimm b. Germany???? __________________________________________ NetZero - Defenders of the Free World Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html