10,000+ Genealogists' Signatures Delivered to NARA

This is a follow-up report to several recent newsletter articles concerning efforts to petition the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The petition asks NARA to reconsider a proposal to reduce the hours that the agency's research rooms are open to the public. If you are not familiar with the proposal and the genealogists' response, you can find details at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/09/only_a_few_hour.html and at the other articles referenced there.

As we approached the Friday deadline for filing comments, the petition had collected more than ten thousand signatures in only six days. I am very proud of the genealogy community for supporting this effort on very short notice. It is gratifying to see this level of mobilization and response.

Very late Thursday evening, I file transferred the petition with all 10,000+ signatures to a Kinko's office near Washington, D.C. (I am about 400 miles away.) Kinko's printed the petition with all its signatures in the wee hours of Friday morning, filling more than 550 pages!

Shortly after the start of the business day and just hours before the filing deadline, Marie and Bob Melchiori retrieved the petition from Kinko's and drove to the National Archives. They delivered the petition, with all 10,000+ signatures attached, in person.

The NARA employee who is charged with receiving and recording incoming requests, comments, and petitions apparently was impressed. I don't know the exact words used, but that employee asked if it would be possible to obtain another copy of the petition in electronic format. I can't say that I blame her since she is charged with recording all the incoming requests, comments, and petitions. She probably does not want to manually transcribe 10,000+ signatures and comments! (The original "Request For Comments" had specified comments on paper, but I doubt if they expected 10,000+ responses.)

I have since sent the full petition in electronic format to that NARA employee.

Obviously, it is too early to assess the impact of this petition. We probably won't know the outcome for several months. However, I think all the genealogists who flew into action should pat themselves on the back for gathering more than 10,000 signatures in only six days. Special thanks go to Marie Melchiori, Bob Melchiori, and David Rencher, who were instrumental in this effort. I know there were a number of others who were involved in organizing this effort and/or in spreading the word in newsgroups and message boards. I don't have all the names of those who helped, but I do know that all U.S. genealogists owe a big "thank you" to the people involved. Thanks to the efforts of many, the voices of genealogists are now being heard in Washington, D.C. I hope to write about the success of this effort within a few months.

I wonder if this is the largest number of signatures ever collected on a genealogy-related petition. Does anyone know of a larger effort in the past?

Comments

[Lorraine Faris]

Dick,
Thank you for your leadership on this very important issue.
Lorraine

[Betty Schulz]

Thanks Dick, and all others for this heroic effort!

[Bobbi King]

Dick's booth at the FGS conference, where he displayed the NARA petition and informed his booth visitors so eloquently, his electronic communications skills that facilitate such endeavors, and his committment to genealogical interests make a real difference in times like this one. It's a testament to his popularity and credibility that he can help initiate action on such short notice.

[Bev Anderson]

KUDOS!!! :-) Three cheers for Dick, and Kudos and three cheers for the people who helped him, Bob & Marie!!!

If the US were as 'on the ball' as Norway and Denmark, the NARA records (and all other government records) would have been transcribed and/or digitized and put online for free, for the use of all genealogists, and it wouldn't be necessary to have extended library hours unless someone really wants to look at the original documents... that means not only on a national level, but statewide levels, too. I am online at Norway's Digitalarkivet web site almost daily (it's still the easiest web site to navigate and most pages are in English as well as Norwegian). BLM-GLO has images of Land Grants online (and for free) and I've had occasion to use their web site, but I'd like to see all old documents put online and available to the public for free (and with user-friendly search criteria like Digitalarkivet has). Our ancestors are the ones mentioned in those old documents, after all. They paid their taxes as well as we do, so I don't understand why the information isn't available online and for free.

Finding the equivalent info online (and for free!) in the US are moments I treasure, and I know the information would not be there without the hard work of volunteers who labored for free to make the information available. The best I can do is contribute a smidgen of info myself now and then, but I'm still doing active research, so I don't always have time to transcribe data.

So, besides Dick and his friends, Bob & Marie, Kudos to all volunteers who transcribe or make images of data we genealogists regularly use and put it online for free to share with the rest of us...!!! :-)

[soccermom]

Thank you, Dick, for your leadership and effort! The alternative suggestions to closing on the weekends and in the evening are really reasonable. I believe other libraries follow a similar schedule: closed one weekday, late start on days that have evening hours. That's basically what I said when I posted a comment on the government site.