The era of sliding drawers full of
aging FBI files is drawing to a close. Millions of fingerprint cards, criminal
history folders, and civil identity files that once filled rows upon rows of
cabinets—and expansive warehouses—have been methodically converted into ones
and zeroes. The digital conversion of more than 30 million records—and as many
as 83 million fingerprint cards—comes as the FBI fully activates its Next
Generation Identification (NGI) system, a state-of-the-art digital platform of
biometric and other types of identity information.
Do watch the video and read the box “A
Dying Art” which gives insight into how finger-print matching used to take
place.
Though we don’t often want to think
we have scofflaws in our family, they leave such a rich paper trail that it is
actually kind of nice to find one or more in the family. You can at least count on there being some
paperwork about them. We have previously talked about Using FBI Files for Genealogy
Research.
Some other neat resources if you are
interested in pursuing research into FBI files are:
+ A Guide to Conducting Research in
FBI Records -- detailed information about the
records of the FBI
+ "The
FBI and Your Ancestor?" by Melchiori, Marie Varrelman NGS
NewsMagazine 32:4 (October/November/December 2006), pp. 24-28. [NGS
members can access for FREE]
What do you
think? Might future genealogists be able to more easily access these FBI files given that they are now digitized?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
copyright © National
Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia
22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NGS does not imply
endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog.
Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily
reflect the view of NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Republication
of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for
non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a
note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written
permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles
for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission
to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be
edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom
of each UpFront article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Think your friends,
colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post
interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggestions for
topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send
any suggested topics to [email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unless indicated
otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to learn more about
interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks,
Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment