Thu, Dec 15
06:30PM
Thu, Dec 15
06:30PM

family history today: genealogy programs at the center

Reclaim the Records: Using Freedom of Information Laws for Genealogical and Archival Research

Brooke Schreier Ganz, founder of Reclaim The Records, states:
“Tired of being told by archives, libraries, and government agencies that the records they hold are "unavailable" to the public, only available behind a paywall, or only available to view if you can visit them onsite? We were too, so we figured out how to do something about it.

We're Reclaim The Records, a new not-for-profit activist group. We use state Freedom of Information (FOI) laws to obtain copies of previously-inaccessible archival record sets, which we then freely post online, without any copyrights or usage restrictions. Our work has enabled the first-ever public access to millions of archival records from New York and New Jersey, from marriage records to registered voter lists to tax rolls. We started with a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York in 2015 -- and won! -- and are now spreading our legal work to other cities and states.

This presentation will walk through the history and legal basics of FOI laws, and will teach researchers how to file their own state FOI requests for any genealogical or archival records they may want to see returned to the public domain.”


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family history today: genealogy programs at the center