There is a message being passed around written by Juliana Smith of Ancestry Daily News that has been making the rounds for the past several days. It appears in the archives here: http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=9105#announce In it she quotes David Rencher as follows: ---------------- David Rencher, Chairman of the Record Access and Preservation Committee, a joint committee of the National Genealogical Society and Federation of Genealogical Societies, has sent a letter to the bill's sponsor, Congressman Dennis Hastert, recommending an amendment to the bill as follows: "However, nothing in this Chapter 2 shall be construed to require a State to change its law with respect to public access to (A) non-certified copies of birth certificates, or to (B) birth certificates or birth records once a period of 100 years has elapsed from the date of creation of the certificate or record." What this all means is that this house resolution, which was passed last Friday and is on the way to the Senate, would ban access to birth records. Not just new ones, but old ones, too. Period. In Oregon, that would mean that the birth records that are more than 100 years old would be closed to the public. The old birth records in other states would see the same fate. In some states, you can get a non-certified birth record. That would stop. The bill is scheduled for a Senate vote this week. I sent an e-mail to both Oregon Senators expressing my concern and asked them to include the amendment that David Rencher has proposed. Connie __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com