Dear Listers: I know that it's frustrating knowing that the document you need is unavailable. But one thing we all have to remember is that these offices were set up to supply birth, marriage and death certificates mainly for legal purposes - obtaining a driver's license or passport, processing an insurance claim, filing probate, etc. They were never set up to deal with the rush of requests from genealogists, nor do we have any right to our g-g-g-grand uncle's marriage certificate. It's the same with church and cemetery records - they belong to the church or cemetery organization, and it is their option to make them available to us. Having said that, remember that the government is made up of elected officials, so if you disagree with the policy, write to your state senator and/or governor. Perhaps there is some way to make the older information available. Your friendly neighborhood listowner, Judy ===== Judy Jamieson Pisano [email protected] "The Bird Families of New Jersey" <http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~birdnj> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/