Personally, I think the writer of this petition had a point--that real genealogical research costs money and that it would be great if all records in state and federal archives could be put online--but the petition is going about the wrong way to try to change things. First of all, we need to remember that there are LOTS and LOTS of records contained in those archives. The archives were neither created nor staffed for genealogical research, and state archives are funded by taxes from state residents. They are doing US a favor in creating special rooms and hiring archivists to handle genealogical queries. Although high in some cases, fees for out-of-state researchers go toward paying the extra people the state has to hire to answer all of their genealogical correspondence. To expect the state to hire, train, and support a small army to digitize all of their records of genealogical value for posting to the Web or including on CDs is NOT going to be a big priority for state taxpayers. I know, it's not nice, but it's the truth. How about contacting local genalogical organizations in the states where you do a lot of research, asking them if they have any plans underway to digitize archive records, and offering to make a donation to the cause? It doesn't solve the money problem, but it could actually work. Kristi Brown