Granite Mountain Record Vault

Norman Hegemann

I would like to know what it would take to have the Civil Registration Records for Hoetmar, Westfalen, Preussen, Germany, released from the Granite Mountain Vault. There are records from 1874 through 1938. The film #'s are 103635835, 103635837 through 103635962. It would seem that the years 1874 through 1900 at the very least should be able to be safely released. So much work could be done with access to these records.

Thanks,

My email address is hegefam@gmail.com

A van Helsdingen

According to the FamilySearch Wiki, death records in Germany are made public after 30 years. So there are no privacy reasons for any of these records to not be accessible. However a more important factor is that the record owner must give permission for the records to be published. Just because all the records are at a central archive does not mean that the archive owns the records. If the records are still legally owned by the local registration offices, then FS has to go to each of them and negotiate a contract that gives them the right to publish the records. That would be very time consuming for FS.

If these records are online at a subscription website then there is virtually no chance of them going online, as the owner would not want FS used as a backdoor to bypass the subscription fees.

I notice that these records were digitized in 2017. The fact that they are still not online suggests either the record owner is refusing permission or there is a legal issue stopping their publication.

I suggest contacting the Nordrhein-Westfälisches Hauptstaatsarchiv in Duisberg and asking them about alternative ways to see the records and whether these films on FS will ever be viewable.

MaureenE123

..confusing that no icon is used. Perhaps an icon with a red cross over a camera would be a good way to communicate the situation where digital-only records are not available under any circumstances.

Completely agree.

I have now found https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/article/what-are-notes-or-film-digital-notes-in-the-catalog

which says "No icon means FamilySearch lacks a physical copy and the record custodian denies user access to the digital images".

However, in my view so much better to have an icon you can see which means this, rather than, as I did, be confused thinking it was a bug that prevented an icon being displayed.

Also there is the question, if no one can actually access the records, is there a reason to have a catalog entry displayed?

MaureenE123

The catalog entry is

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/2769421

However, although I could see that these records were digitised, as shown by a DGS number, there were NO ICONS showing for any of the records as to what the viewing conditions were.

This would seem to be a BUG as every record should have an icon. I was signed in to FamilySearch

A van Helsdingen

These records have no film numbers, because there are "born Digital". They were filmed in 2017, by which time microfilm was no longer being used by FS for capturing new records.

So it isn't appropriate to use a microfilm icon as the records are not available in that format. I agree that it confusing that no icon is used. Perhaps an icon with a red cross over a camera would be a good way to communicate the situation where digital-only records are not available under any circumstances.