I love the spirit of your E-mail Elaine and want to encourage everyone that believes that IDENTITY INFORMATION THEFT and IDENTITY THEFT w/o personal monetary loss are the concerns and not GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION on deceased relatives will have a greater impact on HOMELAND SECURITY than GENEALOGICAL RECORDS. "the further up the government food chain you go." (state food chain and national food chain) As a professional who has works in CONSUMER EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY I encourage YOU TO VOICE YOUR CONCERN (ELECTRONICALLY) TO: 1. YOUR STATES ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE. 2. THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION Yes, being a squeaky wheel to contact senators, legislators to get the bug going in them is important as well. The organization that tracks and makes the legal changes is the FTC. The do this by logging complaints and following national trends. I provide the e-mail links to assist: NY Residents can contact: Attorney General at: http://www.oag.state.ny.us (other states can't be searched by simply putting PA, OH, etc. into this site and I do not see a link between each states site so each state must be searched independently.) FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: Can be contacted by going to: http://www.ftc.gov/ Unfortunately, after looking at the site briefly I do not see where the types of complaints/issues our list is suggesting. I would be willing to gather our collective complaints and contacting the FTC so please send me a copy of your complaint (or post the contents of your complaint if the ohwashing-l@rootsweb.com listserve permits.) My direct e-mail is: etobia@stny.rr.com Elisa Tobia -----Original Message----- From: ELAINE TIPTON [mailto:TIPTON_E@msn.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:39 AM To: OHWASHIN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [OHWASH] new rules You go girl! I wrote to several senators before the law passed and when one of them cited 9/11/2001 to me, I wrote back and told him he was insulting my intelligence. The info on 100 year old birth/death records would be no good to terrorists. If they use modern ones, the $16.00 pricetag will not deter them from getting all they want. They are very resourceful and determined. It's easier for them to steal credit card info which is what scares me. I receive credit card offers in the mail every day. Many of them have my personal id on them and come with a stack of checks which can be used on my account. If the government wants to protect my identity (and I haven't even asked them to), they should look into this issue, not 100 year old birth/death certificates. And what makes it ok for the health department to walk into the library and confiscate anything? Don't they need a court order? Why haven't they raided the LDS, the Historical Society, the Genealogical Societies, even our homes? It is a crock. I vow to make public any info I have concerning the genealogy of my family without paranoia or fear that an airplane is going to zero in on my homeland. If the people in Washington would stop arguing and band together we could continue to live in the land of the free, instead of crushing our patriotism. The way things are going, we are on a fast train to government control of our private lives. It is a sad day. Thanks for letting me vent as well. Elaine ----- Original Message ----- From: Donna J Hughes To: OHWASHIN-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:13 AM Subject: [OHWASH] new rules I find it strange that one of the reasons for changing the laws is so there can't be theft of identity but if you pay the price you can get all the records you want!!!! From three cents for an uncertified copy to $16.00 for certified copy is quite a jump in price. Mainly what we used the copies for was to verify our information was correct. We would get siblings etc. to help prove relationship, but no more!!! No more uncertified copies. Also our Ohio Historical Society Archives had to cut hours back. Now they are only open 3 days a week. This was because of cuts in funding. It gets harder all the time to get records. I find this very sad. I have had a lot of fellow researchers e-mailing me telling me their feelings about this too. If the Huron County genealogy society had permission to put the film in the library there should have at least been a hearing to discuss it before taking it out of the library plus the fact it BELONGS to the Society. Thanks for letting me vent my feelings. Donna Hughes ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237