Reclaim the Records Needs Us Again

We always try to help our friends at this wonderful organization because they are fighting our battles for us all over the United States. We've written about Reclaim the Records many times, and for those of you just joining us, let us introduce you to one of the most vibrant and hardworking of genealogy organizations. This not-for-profit group of genealogists and lawyers goes head-to-head with governmental agencies over and over again to keep public records public, prevent bureaucrats from denying vital records to genealogists and historians, and ensure that Freedom of Information Act requests are granted as they should be everywhere. It's a hard job, and they rely on all of us to help them, since they are doing it for us.

Kudos to Reclaim the Records Once Again for the New York State Death Index!

Our friends at the amazing Reclaim the Records have chalked up another victory for genealogists who had ancestors who died in New York from 1880 to 2017. We have written about this small but mighty nonprofit several times before, alerting our readers to their ongoing battles for indexes and records that should be public but are being held out of sight by unending red tape. Now, the group has announced another victory which many of us will be very pleased to see. Here are the details . . .

Reclaim the Records Scores Another Victory for Genealogists

We have written several times in the past few years about the nonprofit organization called Reclaim the Records and its endless battles against governmental agencies on our behalf to open public records. This bold and tireless group is pretty much the David vs. Goliath of the genealogy world, taking on bureaucracy in state after state to ensure that genealogists have access to both indices and records that are, by law, open to the public. In their latest triumph for all of us, they have gone into action against the Department of Military Affairs, and they have won! We now have access to millions of records generated by the Veterans Administration for those military personnel who received benefits during the late nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries! This victory opens a huge record set that most of us have likely never known about. Read on for all the details!

Action Needed from Genealogists to Prevent Unreasonable Fee Hike!

Did you know the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, has a genealogy records program? This program gives the public access to copies of immigration and naturalization records dating from the beginning of federal immigration records in 1893 into the 1950s. However, the program has not been supported adequately, and now, because of a proposed hike in fees, these valuable documents may become far less available to genealogists. Read on for more information and how you can help to save access to these records.