I am as guilty as the rest of you......................... I fell for this too, and e-mailed the Mayor. See my e-mail to him below. Our culprit appears to be one Angelia Hutchins-Thomas. ================================ TO: Mayor Michael D. Hurley The following (excerpt) in a post appeared on several of the genealogy related mailing lists I subscribe to this morning and I felt compelled to write to you to express my hope that these records in question will not be destroyed. They should be published in a book that the city can profit from, not destroyed and lost to researchers and descendants forever. I include the item below so you can see what hundreds of people saw in their e-mail this morning. Sincerely, Jacqueline Sleeper Russell ======================== "Good Morning. For all of those people searching for ancestors in Waldo County, Maine this pertains to you. As a long time resident, and fairly new genealogy buff I have some information that is disturbing. There are a number of people in Belfast (where the Waldo County records are kept), that are wanting the records destroyed. There are only a few people that feel the importance about having the records available for everyone, but those few can not out weight the majority of the people who want them destroyed. The woman in charge of organizing/working with the records has been fighting them over this for some time now and her tenure will be up in a few weeks. After she is gone, there is a great possibility that the records will be lost forever. Here is a link to the City of Belfast. If you're so inclinded to email the mayor. http://www.cityofbelfast.org/councilcontact.shtm The link for the City Clerk's office, genealogical section is currently under construction. I would hate for those records to be gone. Those people who want them destroyed are thinking that it won't affect anyone or if it does it will only be a select few, they are wrong. It affects everyone and once they are gone, there will be no getting them back. Most Sincerely~ Angelia Hutchins-Thomas Ancestors: Moody, Evans, Annis, Hutchins, Pickering, Littlefield, Thomas ========================= AND, PLEASE...................... Take the time to read this, and let us all learn that before we jump in again, to research first and, react (or not react) second. JSR ====================== 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 Jacqueline Sleeper Russell website: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SRCH&db=jacquelinesr