-- [ From: Richard Frisbie * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- .the intent is to prevent further dissemination of a non-fact, much like virus hoaxes. -------- REPLY, End of original message -------- Dear listmembers The subject of my original post was "Genealogy research and (the fine line of) the law" - changing it to "It's the law" is misleading and inappropriate . So far this is not a further dissemination of non-fact - it was posted because I had never heard of it and wondered if anyone had. I had a chance to look at my notes from the meeting - the acting State Historian Dr. Joseph Meany said, "It is a matter of local law that municipal historians are forbidden to do genealogical research for any individual." Why I would have to interupt a very good speech to ask the top historian in the state for verification is beyond me - as is why reporting it to this list can be called "dissemination of non-fact." The historian's guidelines posted here earlier point to such research being discouraged. By law - or not - I don't know. (Incidently - neither the president nor the vice president of the Ulster county genealogical society - who were both present in the audience - interrupted to ask about that law either.) More significantly - I thought - was the remark his statement did generate. That was about the southern state building a new archives and opening it longer hours because of genealogy groups documenting the large amounts of money spent by researchers. That was from the head of the local government studies department in our community college. (He didn't ask if it really was a law either. His point - I believe - was that genealogical research was a "good" thing on many levels and shouldn't be illegal for historians - rather documented to improve the financial worth of municipal historian's positions, maybe even increase their budgets.) But - I didn't interrupt him to ask what he meant either. Everyone seemed to accept it - I certainly did. I just took notes and enjoyed the meeting. As I already asked - please don't shoot the messenger. Richard