In a message dated 12/31/2007 9:18:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, irish-new-york-city-request@rootsweb.com writes: > Shame on me for leaving if I did > but why be so rigid when Chicago and Ireland have filmed their records? > > > Enjoying the debate for its own sake as well as the topic, but there are a couple of misconceptions here. Great though the online databases from the Civil Authorities Public Records are, they are far from perfect and not yet complete so that "no civil record is found" there or even by request directly to the civil authorities does not mean none exists or existed at one time! The officiating official (Lay or Clergy) was not always the party responsible for reporting marriages either, and deaths were often reported (or not) by bereaved relatives. The Churches should not be expected to now compensate for failure of individuals to comply with their own civil duty, or for errors in transcription, filing, transportation, storage etc. I agree that funding could perhaps be found if it were a project likely to be profitable commercially as the 1930 census is for the companies having them now on line but that is not likely. Funding the index only wouldn't likely attract any philanthropic funding because it does nothing to improve access at the local parish level. The Church's emphasis on preservation of confidentiality and the concept of private ownership of church records is not diocesan or even national, it is global and universal so perhaps the approach needs to be to the Vatican rather than the Archdiocese of New York? G.McC ************************************** See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)