HUGE news for people with any known or suspected New York City ancestors or relatives! Like, HUGE.
Index to New York City domestic partnership records, 1993-2017
This New York State Freedom of Information (FOIL) request is coming soon. Stay tuned!
This New York State Freedom of Information (FOIL) request is coming soon. Stay tuned!
In 2016, Reclaim The Records filed a successful FOIL request that obtained the first-ever public copy of the New York City marriage license index for 1930-1995. [...]
Using the New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), Reclaim The Records won the first-ever public access to the 1930-1995 marriage index for New York City, over five [...]
The key takeaway is here: agencies cannot use exempt information as primary keys and then claim an exemption to withhold information about how records are related to each other.
Excellent #FOIA opinion from the Second Circuit today paving the way for meaningful access to records stored in government databases. I'm proud to have represented amici @reveal @MuckRock and @MediaLawMLRC through the Harvard @cyberlawclinic!
Save Trove! We are encouraging members & friends to sign the petition: https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN4747 https://www.sag.org.au/Advocacy
Research infrastructure vital to Australia's knowledge economy!
#FamilyHistory #Genealogy #savetrove #Trove #researchinfrastucture
While history professional orgs are writing basically toothless letters of protest, groups like Reclaim are doing the truly needed work of 21st century history advocacy: suing (and winning) to ensure public records aren’t hidden behind paywalls. https://twitter.com/reclaimtherecs/status/1618799930428239872
@boylegenealogy Also, a private company may write into a contract with a public gov't archive (city, state, national...) that the newly digitized records will be "exclusive" and "cannot be redistributed" after scanning...
Turns out, people may write all kinds of legally unenforceable things. 😂
Core ethical values of archivists incl. transparency of processes & accessibility to the documents in our care. It’s made even worse by the fact that @USNatArchives is a govt agency & this is a matter of public interest. But NARA has had a transparency problem for over a decade. https://twitter.com/DoinaChiacu/status/1618666077600235520
The National Archives reportedly sent a letter to former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to check whether there are classified documents in their possession, per CNN. @USNatArchives, which deals with public records, is not making its letter public. It did not comment.
The top FOIA decisions of 2022? The staff of FOIA Advisor pull no punches. http://bit.ly/3GZy5e4
You know, maybe some companies shouldn't have based their entire financial model on pretending that they magically have "exclusive" rights to digital public records.
"Exclusive" public records IS AND ALWAYS WAS A LIE, no matter how many times they put it in the contracts.
This morning, we at RTR got word that a state that had given @Ancestry "exclusive" rights to scan and index decades of their old vital records will be forced to turn over all the images and metadata to us within thirty days.
CHANGE IS C̶O̶M̶I̶N̶G̶ HERE. 😎
will we ever see a future where records of our ancestors aren’t behind a paywall??
@BarbFFm @genzgenealogy Several places would scan and make the images available on the Internet without asking for money. As long as governments stop treating public records like a profit center, access is impeded when it doesn't have to be.
@ReclaimTheRecs
@boylegenealogy Also, a private company may write into a contract with a public gov't archive (city, state, national...) that the newly digitized records will be "exclusive" and "cannot be redistributed" after scanning...
Turns out, people may write all kinds of legally unenforceable things. 😂
11 months ago
11 months ago
1 years ago
Reclaim The Records is an IRS-recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Our EIN is 81-4985446. Contact us at [email protected]
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