Many of the seemingly "Church" records available for NYC were filmed from the Dept. of Health Records not the parish records. Because the ceremony was held in a church and the officiating clergy empowered to act for the Civil Authority, the piece of paper submitted to the civil authority was simply a copy of the church record. The fact that the same difficulties are encountered in obtaining records not alone here in the US but also in Ireland, Germany and elsewhere does not support the "Local" theory. My point was that for uniformity of policy worldwide and to help the maximum number of researchers worldwide (not just ourselves) a global approach made more sense. No one appreciates the efforts of the LDS church in filming and providing the vast record resources they hold free to all researchers more than I do, regardless of their motivation . I'm fortunate to spend time frequently in Salt Lake City and not only the great FHL but the expert and helpful professional genealogists on staff have been of immense assistance to me in my personal research. ************************************** See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)