How can I request a record be digitized? (many are still film only)

LegacyUser

Matt Daly said: I know for sure they are not on ancestry, or anywhere else. Believe me, I've been looking haha. Thank you for this advice though. I sent a detailed and thoughtful email to the county clerk with links to the land deeds in the catalog and the form to contact familysearch. Last year I persuaded my local library to become a familysearch affiliate so I must have at least some persuasive ability!

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A van Helsdingen said: I wish you good luck

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Juli said: "If the county let familysearch come in and microfilm all these at one point I don't get why they wouldn't allow them to be used."

Many old microfilming contracts had record preservation as their primary (or even only) purpose. Access to the records is not automatically part of the thinking behind such contracts. The county probably just wanted a cheaper alternative to building climate-controlled, pH-balanced, fire- and flood-protected archival storage areas.

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Tom Huber said: When the digitized films were indexed, many were automatically dumped into public view, but at some point, FS discovered that they did not have permission to do so and as a result, pulled what was previously available from public view until a new contractual agreement could be obtained, allowing public access to the digitized images.

Or, as happened in Illinois, a decision was made to make money by the clerks who had the records in their possession and suddenly (as my wife an I found out), we no longer could access the books because of a change in policy. There's a long story behind the action, but today many states who decided to pull access from the digitized images of their vital records found public pushback. Today, many, if not most, states have state policies (by state legislative action) in place regarding public access. These are Freedom of Information acts that are passed in each state.

I'm currently in Washington State for another few weeks, and they state

You are entitled to access to public records under reasonable conditions, and to copies of those records upon paying the costs of making the copy. In most cases, you do not have to explain why you want the records. However, specific information may be necessary to process your request.

.I thought I had a link to a non-profit organization that works toward getting state laws regarding access corrected, but I cannot find it. Someone, when this came up previously provided the link, so hopefully, they'll chime in with the current URL to that site.

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Tom Huber said: It should be noted that most of the Acts provide a certain amount of protection for living persons with regard to accessing public records. For instance, adoption papers are often sealed and can take a court order to grant access to the family members involved.

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Robert Raymond said: Gabe, just in case you were not already aware, I just checked and 1292945 is available online, anywhere.

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Robert Raymond said: Perhaps you've already noticed. Both films are available online from anywhere.

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Robert Raymond said: Tom, the link and organization that you may be thinking of is the Records Preservation & Access Committee: https://fgs.org/community/rpac/
As they are a non-profit organization, they cannot engage in lobbying. Instead, they educate and communicate. You and I can then contact law and policy makers to advocate appropriate access to records.

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Matt Daly said: I just spent a while clicking through every single New York county alphabetically in the familysearch catalog to see the availability of their land records. With the exception of some counties in and near NYC, every single county in New York state has deed records available to view online. I'm not sure what's different about Franklin County or what special privacy concerns would only apply to them.

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Robert Raymond said: All, FamilySearch does not generally advise people to make record requests on our behalf. A whole variety of things can go wrong.

I know it is frustrating waiting on us, but we have limited staff in the United States who work with over 3,000 counties, a couple hundred New England Towns, 50ish state archives, 50ish state health departments, hundreds of private state level archives, and thousands of regional archives at various levels. We are working hard to free up access as fast as we can.

On the other hand, we have had great success when people with established relationships help us make contact alongside our negotiators. One example went something like this: The president of the local historical society learned the local judge was dragging his feet deciding whether or not to give us access. "I taught Johnny in the 5th grade. Let me give him a call." The contract was signed expeditiously!

Bottom line: If you are friends with a decision maker controlling access to films we have scanned (i.e. they have a DGS number), but not made public (i.e., there is no camera icon), please contact me.

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Peter Sideris said: Robert, how can we contact you? I have some films (with DGS number and restricted) to which I may be able to put you in touch with the responsible people.

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Matt Daly said: How can we get in touch with the specific person who is working with New York State records? I sent an email to the county clerk and deputy county clerk of Franklin county and heard no response. I’m about to send a letter in the mail to them out of frustration. I don’t understand how this could have been worked out with every single county in New York State besides franklin county.

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dabparis said: Robert, are you saying that a film record with a DGS number, but no camera at this point will not likely ever be digitized? I am particularly awaiting film # 69753
DGS# 7948413 for 3 years. Since it is from Germany, obtaining it from the source is not possible, nor is traveling to Utah.

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A van Helsdingen said: A DGS number means the film has been digitized, but if there is no camera symbol the digitized film has not been published. The description of the film says it contains baptisms (taufen) up to 1934. A limit of at least 100 years will apply until these records can be published for privacy reasons. Currently, FS cannot break up films like this into smaller parts and publish the older parts.

These records, like most German Protestant church records, may be on the subscription site Archion. You will need to browse their Catalog: https://www.archion.de/de/browse/?no_...

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Erika Campbell said: Also, go to the location and see if the town has records or maybe an OFB (Ortsfamilienbuch) which has the records of all the families in the town and beyond.

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dabparis said: Not finding them on any subscription site. So annoying to have to wait 100 years. I'll probably be dead by then.

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Juli said: 2034 minus 2020 is only 14 years... even allowing padding for someone somewhere to realize "hey, look, these records don't need to be private anymore" doesn't add up to a century.

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A van Helsdingen said: I had a closer look at Archion's catalog that I linked previously and I think I found the records you're after.

Norddeutschland>Kirchenkreis Mecklenburg>

Georginenau, Wrechen, Rehberg, Hinrichshagen are all present, though some are listed with the records of a neighbouring village, for example Göhren-Wrechen instead of just Wrechen.

Also, I saw that film 69571, part of the same set of records, appears to be visible to LDS members from any computer (non-LDS like myself have no access, not even from a FHC). So if FS breaks up film 69753 in the future and you are a Latter Day Saint, you should be able to view the older parts of the film then.

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dabparis said: Hoping they do break that out at some point soon. Meantime, thanks for the lead in Archion! I'll try and see if I can figure out how to register, not speaking German.

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A van Helsdingen said: You'll need to learn German if you want to be able to read the records. If you weren't aware, records on Archion are NOT indexed, and prior to about 1940 most German records use an difficult style of handwriting called Kurrent. Some churches may have an alphabetical index in the front or back of the book, but often you'll be browsing manually.

LegacyUser

dabparis said: Thanks, I know a little German and can get by reading the records, assuming they look like the microfilmed copies previously available through family search.