Cheryl, thanks for the heads up on this issue. I called the BLM today (it is currently impossible to send them an e-mail) and spoke to a very nice guy named Ken Greenberg. He was very apologetic about the situation and said it may be weeks before the BLM's systems are up as apparently all (or most) of Interior's computer systems are interconnected (including their internal timetracking and email systems!). This is either appallingly bad computer system design or a case of Interior's programmers either trying to make a point or deciding to take some time off for the holidays. Don't expect the database to back online until well into January. As for the accuracy of the BLM data vis-a-vis that from the State of Illinois, I believe the two are distinct databases, not that one is a better copy of the other. At least in my own limited research, I've found different transactions in one database that were not present in the other. -----Original Message----- From: Cheryl Rothwell [mailto:LoganCty@mindspring.com] Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 8:41 AM To: ILTAZEWE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ILTAZEWE] BLM Site Down Folks, this IS true. The Bureau of Land Management site is down. An Illinois alternate, not as accurate, is the Sec of State's public land records. The court did order limited access for DOI sites but not for those with Indian information. > The U.S. Department of the Interior, has been directed by court order to > disconnect all databases that allow access to "individual Indian trust > data". Since the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is under the directive > of the DOI, it has been disconnected, along with some other vital > databases. > > You can read the DOI memos concerning the court orders at: > > http://www.doi.gov/ > > Below are more links if you are interested in the latest news about the > court order disconnecting the DOI's databases, including our favorite > Land Patent Search at the Bureau of Land Management. > > Briefly, the databases that seem to be affected are: > > Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) > Bureau of Land Management (BLM) > Bureau of Reclamations (BOR) > Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) > Minerals Management Services (MMS) > National Parks Service (NPS) another favorite! > Office of Surface Mining (OSM) > > http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/12/11/interior.reut/index.html > > http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48980,00.html > > Official US Executive Websites and their acronyms: > http://www.loc.gov/global/executive/fed.html Cheryl Rothwell LoganCty@mindspring.com http://www.rootsweb.com/~illogan/loindex.htm Central Illinois Regional Coordinator, ILGenWeb

There is a court order shutting down the databases. I looked it up to verify before I posted but I didn't read the fine print. If one of my Rootsweb sites had to be taken down my email address would work because it is not at Rootsweb. I do not know if the email addresses associated with the domain name I own would work, whether they would pull the pages or the entire account from the server. My guess would be when the judge said pull it now they shut down the entire BLM account on the server, now have to do their email differently. >>As for the accuracy of the BLM data vis-a-vis that from the State of Illinois, I believe the two are distinct databases, not that one is a better copy of the other. At least in my own limited research, I've found different transactions in one database that were not present in the other. The database that is available from the Sec of State has been available online for many years. It was on a U of I server before -- it's old. I was told the state's database was from the same records as the BLM. Certainly if you ask for this section of land from the state and from the BLM you are talking about the exact same thing, original land purchases from the government. However, I have also noticed they don't always match. Cheryl Rothwell LoganCty@mindspring.com http://www.rootsweb.com/~illogan/ Central Illinois Regional Coordinator, ILGenWeb