Craig - You DO sound cynical. I think you have the wrong idea. I believe the information is being made available for people who are seriously researching their ancestors and it is a short cut. Otherwise they would be contacting the funeral home directly. Also - death records are public record so the right to privacy thing does not exist. I believe Genealogical Societies are not for profit organzations and I don't believe any money they receive is going for anything but to maintain valuable historical information. I am sure the society must rent a space to keep records, pay phone bills, etc. and it is very difficult to get people to "volunteer" their time so that those people interested in history and researching the past have more possibilities for success. I am wondering if you are a researcher and if not, why are you on the roots list serve? M. Cardella At 06:41 AM 9/29/1998 -0700, you wrote: >Jo Boom, > >> Wouldn't this be a great idea for all Cities, Counties and States? > >Yes the idea is great to provide 100 year old information to relatives! I >hope this does not sound cynical. How much does your Genealogical Society >pay to use records the grieving families paid to record? How did you get >permission from all the families to provide private personal information? >I'm sure their "right to privacy" prevents the sale of "recently recorded >records" without the families permission. Has your Society had any law >suits over selling these records a second time? > >Craig Watkins > >> Our Genealogical Society has got permission, a few years ago, to copy, >> print, and sell the funeral home records in our town. >> The Society copies the records, then goes to the courthouse to see if >> there is any more information there that can be added, If there happens >> to be a discrepancy, we use the original record from the funeral home. >> These are called "Funeral Home" books "not" death records. If the >> funeral home gets a call for information the inquirer is directed to the >> society. This saves the Funeral Director time, and also helps our >> society financially. If anything ever happens to the funeral home, the >> records are saved, several times over!!!! These old records are >> sometimes invaluable. May be some >> of the other societies might try this, to preserve the information. Our >> society is very grateful to both of our Funeral Directors. > >