-------- Original Message -------- Subject: {not a subscriber} Re: [MONEWTON] Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 11:57:03 -0700 From: bdoerr@rollanet.org (Robert M. Doerr) To: MONEWTON-L@rootsweb.com >Is there anything an out-of-state resident can do or say?? Hi I think not, during the campaign. After the election, I hope for a flood of calls for pre-filing of the needed bills in the legislature and state senate, and, during the legislative session, for passage. Thank you. Bob Doerr in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks > >Eleanore in CA > >-----Original Message----- >From: Robert M. Doerr <bdoerr@rollanet.org> >To: MONEWTON-L@rootsweb.com <MONEWTON-L@rootsweb.com> >Date: Monday, September 25, 2000 11:17 AM >Subject: [MONEWTON] > > >>Genealogical Researchers in Missouri: >> >>Let's really push for opening of the Missouri vital records 72 >>years or older. This will require legislative action. Let's get it >>passed in the up-coming session! >> >>Surely, it would be beneficial, during the present campaign, >>to present this issue to the candidates for state legislature and >>state senate. The following may help you in your contacts >>with the candidates in your district. Keep it non-partisan. >> >> >> >> >>Dear Legislator Candidate: >> >>Many, many Missourians are keenly interested in family >>history. However, some are impeded by a problem that exists >>with regard to the State Vital Records Office and which, >>indeed, would exist in any similar situation. >> >>The time has arrived for microfilm copies of the Missouri >>vital records (72 years old or older), and indexes at the State >>Vital Records Office in the Department of Health to be made >>available to the public at the State Archives. A 72-year >>interval is not arbitrary. Owing to the Federal regulation that >>census data remain closed for 72 years, that interval has >>become a de facto standard in the USA. A 72-year interval >>suffices for privacy. >> >>Justification: Family Historians must be enabled to study >>record after record, not just seek one record at a time, and >>especially not have to work through an intermediary person >>or to depend on an index. That is essential, because of the >>many problems in interpretation of hand-written records, >>many typos, many spelling variations in names, even many >>variations in names themselves. There are many entries in >>which the surnames are mis-spelled. >> >>Here is an example. One researcher's great-grandma's >>married name was Zakrzewski, a name that, with the silent >>'k', is more often butchered than not. She died in St. Louis >>some time after May, 1910. Surely, her death is recorded in >>the State Vital Records office The only practical way to find >>her death data would be to search all the surnames that begin >>"Za", "Ze", "Sa" or "Se" in that time period. Repeated tries >>thru the Vital Records Office have been costly, but not >>successful. >> >>In another case, a researcher submitted formal requests and >>fees to a vital records office (not Jefferson City) for his >>aunt's birth and death dates. He knew, and stated, that she >>was born and had died in the 1890s. They reported finding >>neither birth nor death records. As it happens, those older >>birth and death records are open. When he reviewed the >>microfilms, he found both her birth and death data. And he >>found that her birth name differed from her baptismal name >>and from her name at death! The latter had been the only >>name that he had known for her. Perhaps that vital records >>office's index cards were out of sequence. More likely, they >>had her recorded by only one of her names. >> >>Because hand-written capital letters are the most >>troublesome, it often happens that indexes are severely >>deficient. Yet a governmental office can only check via an >>index. The Soundex system is similarly deficient, for it, too, >>depends on the surname initial. >> >> >>All that is needed is to add to Sect. 193.245 of RSMO 1994 >>a new sub-paragraph as follows: >>(4) The department shall provide microfilms of all vital >>records that are 72 years old or older, and microfilms of >>indexes to all such records, to the State Archives for study by >>the public. In January of each year, the department shall >>provide microfilms of all vital records that have become 72 >>years old or older within the prior year, and microfilms of >>indexes to all such records, to the State Archives for study by >>the public. >> >> >>Please note that this would in no way interfere with the >>present practices of the vital records office. >> >> >>In the most-recent legislature, different bills were introduced >>into each house, and hearings were held, but no action has >>yet been taken. >> >> >>Will you support family researchers in this effort? >> >> >> >> >> >> >>Bob Doerr in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks >> >> >> >>==== MONEWTON Mailing List ==== >>Newton County, Missouri MOGenWeb >>http://www.rootsweb.com/~monewton/newton.html >> >>============================== >>Visit ROOTS-L, the Internet's oldest and largest genealogical >>mailing list: >>http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/ >> >> > > >==== MONEWTON Mailing List ==== >Newton County, Missouri MOGenWeb >http://www.rootsweb.com/~monewton/newton.html > >============================== >Know the town name but not the county? Look it up at: >http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/townco.cgi > > >