In a message dated 10/22/2006 1:42:10 PM Central Daylight Time, co_sandy@msn.com writes: Hello listers, Has anyone else noticed the deletion of all birth dates on the Minnesota Birth Index at Ancestry.com? This is the one that covers the period of 1935-2002. In checking, it appears as though Ancestry is deleting the birth dates from other databases as well, which represents a huge loss to the genealogy world.Am wondering if anyone has thoughts about why this is happening! Sandy I doubt that the dates will stay off permantly. I think they are just trying to comply with current rules and laws, which are changing daily. I would imagine that as a date becomes older than current rules/laws specify as private they will again show. There was a discussion about the dates being available on a tech list a while back and how you could use the dates from the mnhs.org site, plus the dates from the ancestry site, plus the dates from the public records index and end up with nearly all the dates needed for your family tree, plus the mother's names. There were several people who were horrified by the idea, and I really agreed with them. I haven't finished updating my MN families, but really consider it better that this was done, even if delays getting some of that info into my trees. To me is not that much of a loss. If I cannot get the info from living family, then I consider that they would prefer the info not be outside the family and that is something I have to respect. And really most of the people from that database would be living. For the ones who are not, you can pick up their birthdates from the death records and the SSDI. When I first saw it, I spent alot of time updating my families, just as I did when the CA database first went up, as I did not expect either to stay up, and the CA one did not, now this one has not. We know the database exists, so the info will become available at an appropriate time, it will not be destroyed, just not put online until a later time. Annie in Minnesota

you mean when they can make up another neat little package of birth dates to sell to us too??? ----- Original Message ----- From: <Hcounter@aol.com> To: <minnesota@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 2:01 PM Subject: Re: [MINNESOTA] Minnesota Birth Index > > In a message dated 10/22/2006 1:42:10 PM Central Daylight Time, > co_sandy@msn.com writes: > > Hello listers, > > Has anyone else noticed the deletion of all birth dates on the Minnesota > Birth Index at Ancestry.com? This is the one that covers the period of > 1935-2002. In checking, it appears as though Ancestry is deleting the > birth dates > from other databases as well, which represents a huge loss to the > genealogy > world.Am wondering if anyone has thoughts about why this is happening! > > Sandy > > > > I doubt that the dates will stay off permantly. I think they are just > trying to comply with current rules and laws, which are changing daily. I > would > imagine that as a date becomes older than current rules/laws specify as > private they will again show. > > There was a discussion about the dates being available on a tech list a > while back and how you could use the dates from the mnhs.org site, plus > the dates > from the ancestry site, plus the dates from the public records index and > end > up with nearly all the dates needed for your family tree, plus the > mother's > names. There were several people who were horrified by the idea, and I > really agreed with them. I haven't finished updating my MN families, but > really > consider it better that this was done, even if delays getting some of > that > info into my trees. To me is not that much of a loss. If I cannot get > the info > from living family, then I consider that they would prefer the info not > be > outside the family and that is something I have to respect. And really > most > of the people from that database would be living. For the ones who are > not, > you can pick up their birthdates from the death records and the SSDI. > When I > first saw it, I spent alot of time updating my families, just as I did > when > the CA database first went up, as I did not expect either to stay up, and > the > CA one did not, now this one has not. > > We know the database exists, so the info will become available at an > appropriate time, it will not be destroyed, just not put online until a > later time. > > Annie in Minnesota > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MINNESOTA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >