I might relate an incident that I know about. While researching court house files for the middle 1800's, we found the Will of an ancestor who died in 1863. We made a copy of the paper and returned it to the case file. A few years later I wanted to again inspect the paper as the handwriting was blurred on the copy we'd made earlier. But I could not find the original document! I know it was there as we'd personally read it, copied it and returned it to the file jacket. (#1 file jacket for the County containing the earliest records). After our court house visit we had to return to our home a few states away. I received an inquiry from someone who said they were also researching the same family name and she sent a 3 x 5" card with documentation about the family, asking that I return it to her after we read it. She named all the children of the deceased even to the misspelling of the names which appeared on the Will. I recognized the card as one very similar to the ones filed in the genealogy society in the town where our ancestor died. I made a copy of the original card and returned it to the sender, but on our next trip to the genealogy library I asked the librarian about the card and showed her the copy of one we'd made. She told me it had been in their files.....that theirs turned up missing. I cannot prove my assumptions but I feel certain the same person not only took possession of the original Will from the court house but also the genealogy society's card file. It angered me to think people would do such a thing but I've heard it became a common practice and many court houses and libraries have had to restrict access to a lot of their records. One lady in the county clerk's office in Kentucky showed me a large old book of early marriages she had to keep in her desk drawer just because several people had tried to smuggle it out of the court house! No doubt many of the old records have disappeared taken by selfish people which has deprived us of valuable information. Even pages from books have been cut out. juanita > As you all know, I do alot of lookups for people, especially those who > have become really good email buddies, and you know who you are. > > Last night I was at the library doing my thing. I wanted to look > something up in the Anne Simmerman files. Now for those of you who are > not familiar with this I will explain. Anne Simmerman was a > genealogist and did an awful lot of it for other people. I don't think > that the dear lady every threw anything away, and any paper was fair > game for writing on. She also wrote a column in the daily newspaper on > Patriot, an area of great importance to alot of people, in Perry > Township. > > Back to my story, I have been for a very long time trying to help > people researching the Carters,Ripleys, Allisons and Prose. I wanted > something out of the Allison file. Well they are gone along with the > Ripleys, Prose and Carters that have been missing , one by one, since > last summer. > > Now, like I said these files are on all sorts of families, and have > been added to along the years after they were given to the Bossard > Library.This collection is housed in a four drawer cabinet. I have > used them, lots of people have used them. Now these files that were > very informational are gone. > > I can't believe that someone would take these files on purpose but > they are gone , one whole set of a intermingled family ... Why would > someone take files when there is a copier in the next room? They were > old and fragile but yet useable. Valuable information collected from > reliable sources, people who remembered because they were there when > it happened. > > I just wish who ever took them would bring them back. It would please > uncountless people. > > Just had to get that off my chest. > > Cheryl