Is there anything an out-of-state resident can do or say?? 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/ > >