Massachusetts Genealogical Council
Massachusetts Genealogical Council
National Records Access Community
MGC finds itself standing with allies at every step of the way. These groups are also active in promoting access to genealogical records.
The Records Preservation and Access Coalition (RPAC) is a joint project of the National Genealogy Society (NGS), and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). RPAC meets monthly via videoconference. Also attending these sessions are representatives from the American Society of Genealogists, the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Board for Certification of Genealogists, the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, ProQuest, and Ancestry.
Judy Russell, JD, CG, CGL, has spent more than a decade writing a blog called The Legal Genealogist. She is a great supporter of records access issues.
Reclaim the Records is the new kid on the block, founded in 2015, but it is a brash new kid. Reclaim the Records uses Freedom of Information requests to gather in public records, then makes those publically funded records available on the web for genealogists to use without a paywall.
COMMUNITY BLOGS
There are several wonderful blogs that frequently cover records preservation and access issues.
Fred Moss, and Jan Alpert, NGS, “Records Advocate,” www.recordsadvocate.org
Jan Miesels Allen, Public Records Access Monitoring Committee of IAJGS, http://www.iajgs.org/legislation/
Judy Russell, “The Legal Genealogist,” www.legalgenealogist.com
Brooke Shreier Ganz, “Reclaim the Records,” https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/