Thanks, Jane, Charles, and Davis -- for being a voice of sanity. But this rumor/gossip/innueundo has already spread to the Massachusetts lists. How can we stop it? Karen -----Original Message----- From: David Sylvester [mailto:Roots@feliixplace.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 6:34 PM To: MEYORK-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [MEYORK] F.Y.I Fwd: Re: [Waldo County] [Fwd: DESTRUCTION OF BELFAST RECORDS] This just in from Betsy Paradis, Reference/Special Collections Librarian of the Belfast Free Library. Everybody please read. Regards, Davis Sylvester Waldo County Listowner http://www.feliixplace.com/genealogylists/waldocountymaine.html Hey everyone, I'm just getting in on this so I'm not sure where this all originates, but I can assure you that the City of Belfast is not planning on destroying any Belfast vital records. I have just spoken to the city clerk and can pass on a message from her to you which I will append below. She is being bombarded by folks from this list but apparently the original message was related to Waldo County records, not Belfast records. If someone would be kind enough to send me the original message or direct me to a web site that brought this all about, I would be happy to investigate and let you know what I find. Betsy Paradis Reference/Special Collections Librarian Belfast Free Library 106 High Street Belfast, Maine 04915 (207) 338-3884 Ext. 25 Here is the message from the City Clerk: Hello my name is Roberta Fogg, I am the City Clerk in the City of Belfast, Maine. I have received a dozen or so emails regarding the destruction of records in the custody of Waldo County. First of all I would like to let you all know that I personally take the preservation of all historic and vital records very seriously, and only dispose of records in accordance with the State of Maine, Department of Archives, Disposition Schedule. That being said, I am not the person who has custody of any Waldo County records. The City of Belfast does not have custody of any Waldo County records. The County of Waldo and the State of Maine, Department of Archives is the only one's who would have custody of the county records. You should direct your concerns to the Waldo County Commissioners, via Barbara Arseneau, County Clerk. email: countyclerk@waldocountyme.gov or you can call 207-338-3282. She is out of her office today at a workshop, but should be back in tomorrow. I am not sure who posted the original message about destroying county records that mobilized your group, but I would caution people to first find out if it is accurate and secondly find out what records and under what conditions any destruction would take place. Please do not believe everything you read or hear. Please give people the benefit of the doubt. Finally I feel it necessary to give a brief chain of custody lesson to people regarding government and government documents. There are three distinct layers of government in Maine; Local (also know as Municipal or Town), County (there are 16 in Maine) and the State (or we just say Augusta). Each branch of government is responsible for the care and custody of our own records. Several branches of government do overlap, usually with Vital Statistics (birth, death and marriage records), but that overlap does not eliminate the individual branches responsibility to maintain their records. We are also required to comply with the State of Maine, Department of Archives, Disposition Schedule. This schedule is located on the State of Maine website. I hope you find this helpful and will post this to your message board for all participants to read. Have a nice day, Roberta L. Fogg City Clerk City of Belfast 131 Church Street Belfast, Maine 04915 PH 207-338-3370 Fax 207-338-6222 cityclerk@cityofbelfast.org ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx