2007 ANNUAL MEETING AND SEMINAR INFO

Massachusetts records have been open and unrestricted for 365 years. Help us to keep it that way by supporting the work of MGC with your letters to the legislators in this state. Information follows for both residents and non-residents of Massachusetts.

The 1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties states:

Every Inhabitant of the Countrie shall have free libertie to search and veewe any Rooles, Records, or Regesters of any Court or office except the Councell, And to have a transcript or exemplification thereof written examined, and signed by the hand of the officer of the office paying the appointed fees therefore.

The current bills in the legislature call for restricting access to all birth records since 1910 and all marriage and death records since 1950. These records are currently open public records and are the entry point for genealogical and medical history research. Closure of these records is in direct opposition to the Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative. See http://www.hhs.gov/ familyhistory for more information.
The indexes to these records are restricted in the same manner. This is unprecedented in our state. It will deny use by all non-governmental individuals: researchers in genealogy, medical history, probate heirs, banks, journalists, and historians.

Contact should be made immediately. We stopped these bills in 2003 – but now support for them in the legislature is formidable. If YOU don’t speak now, these bills will change the face of genealogy in Massachusetts and beyond.

MOST EFFECTIVE: a signed letter [MA RESIDENTS CLICK HERE ] [OUT OF STATE CLICK HERE] with your reasons for opposing these closures, using your own words.
ALSO: telephone calls, face to face meetings, and e-mails.
SHARE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT: urge your sympathetic relatives, friends, neighbors, and the professionals listed above to do the same.

Contact information for your representatives and senators is available from:

http://www.mass.gov/legis/
your town clerk’s office
the state house at (617) 722-2000

The postal address is:

Representative (or Senator) _______, State House, Room _______, Boston, MA 02133.

If you are out of state, please send your letters to:

The Honorable Robert A. DeLeo, Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee, Room 243, The State House, Boston, MA 02133; Tel: 6i7-722-2990; Fax: 617-722-2998; Email: Robert.DeLeo@state.ma.us

This page was last updated on: 10/23/2006