Amen to that, Craig! To gain materially abroad from record searches is inexcusable. Craig Watkins 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.