UpFront with NGS: Reclaim the Records

Showing posts with label Reclaim the Records. Show all posts

16 October 2017

Reclaim the Records -- New Jersey Marriage Index, 1901-2016, Now Available for FREE!

Reclaim the Records -- New Jersey Marriage Index, 1901-2016, Now Available for FREE!

From our friends at Reclaim the Records …

Introducing the NEW JERSEY MARRIAGE INDEX, 1901-2016! These records are now totally digital, and totally free -- forever! Now you can research anyone who got married in the Garden State right from your home, still in your pajamas.

We've posted these images at our favorite online library, the Internet Archive (archive.org). You can skip right to any year you want and flip through all the images, or you can download the records to your hard drive as JPG's, PDF's, and/or other formats. Each file is listed year-by-year (or occasionally by a year range), and then the marriages are listed alphabetically by surname.

Just to be clear: these are images of the index, so this isn't a real text-searchable marriage database just yet. But rest assured that the usual genealogy websites we all know are going to start indexing projects and will make that happen eventually. (Yes, the Internet Archive does run automatic OCR on the text contained in the images, but the recognition quality isn't that great, so you're probably better off just reading through the images instead of trying to text-search.) …

As someone who has periodically done research into the records of NJ, I wholeheartedly say thanks for making these records available!

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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.

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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14 November 2016

Reclaim the Records -- NYC Marriage Index, 1950-1995 FREE to access

Reclaim the Records -- NYC Marriage Index, 1950-1995 FREE to access

Whereas on Friday we posted about restrictions to death records, particularly the Death Master File (DMF), today, we talk about NEW and FREE access to records.

Reclaim the Records (here’s a link to its FB page) shares …

THE NYC MARRIAGE INDEX, 1950-1995, http://www.nycmarriageindex.com/

This brand new website is the result of our successful Freedom of Information request and lawsuit against the New York City Clerk's Office. You can search all the data, for free! Our search engine even recognizes soundalike surnames, spelling variants, wildcards (with no minimum number of letters needed), common nicknames, year ranges, borough preferences, and more. Or you can download all the raw data files in XLS, CSV, or SQL format, and do whatever you want with them

-- also free!

For more information about this database, and to learn how we finally were able to force New York City to give up this data to the public, check out our latest e-mail newsletter.

If you have ancestors who lived in New York City, you have already benefitted directly from the efforts of Brooke Schreier Ganz and her cohorts. In the future, you might also benefit directly if you live in New York State, New Jersey or Missouri. See the image above for the current outstanding records requests.

Even if you do not live in those locations, we do all benefit from the efforts of Reclaim the Records. It shows that genealogists, historians, and other researchers can file Freedom of Information requests (or similar) and use Open Data initiatives, the impetus of Sunshine Week events, and more, to gain access to records that we currently do not have access to.

Catch this video (August 2016) from the recent IAJGS conference where Brooke herself talks about what she’s been doing.

What family history records would you like to gain access to?

What efforts are you and/or local organizations and/or entities you are aware of engaged in to create records access?

Editor’s Note: Read past posts on Upfront with NGS regarding Reclaim the Records here.

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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.

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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!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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15 April 2016

FOIA Mapper -- FREE tool to facilitate making FOIA requests

Earlier this week we posted New York City marriage Records Indexes 1908-1929 online & FREE to access which was about the eventual success of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) type request for access to records by Reclaim the Records.

Last month there was a new tool released to actually help you figure out about doing FOIA requests and it is discussed in What should you FOIA? There’s a new tool to help you figure that out.

Years of FOIA requests taught Galka that there was no easy way to determine which organization had the information he wanted. What format was the information stored in? What language should he use to ensure his request actually got fulfilled? Over time, he realized there were ways, including requesting FOIA logs, to get a sense of the hidden landscape.

"There exists an enormous body of information sitting out there, not documented," he said. "So in theory, everyone has access to it, but practically speaking, it's hard."

As a result, Galka launched FOIA Mapper, described by him ...

I have learned a few ways of identifying these hidden record systems.

In some cases, information about these record systems can be inferred from online documents (for example: public RFP documents, Federal Register notices). In other cases, information about record systems can itself be obtained via FOIA (for example: database relational schema, lists of FOIA requests made by other people).

FOIA Mapper compiles this information into a centralized catalog of government records, searchable by topic.

It seems like it would have applicability to genealogists and our research with regard to federal government agencies.

I haven’t yet played around with it much and if you have, what do you think?

Will it benefit family historians and if so, how?

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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.

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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!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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12 April 2016

New York City marriage Records Indexes 1908-1929 online & FREE to access

We’ve previously posted about Reclaim the Records, Petition Filed at the Supreme Court of the State of New York for Vital Records Access and Records Access Victory!

I’m happy to report that the “fruits” of that victory are starting to show up on the Internet Archive.

As reported in the most recent newsletter (remember that you can sign up to receive the Reclaim the Records newsletter to receive the latest news) ...

Reclaim the Records is very pleased to announce that the index to the New York City Clerk's Office marriage records (the application, affidavit, and license) for 1908-1929 is now online and open for public use.

There are no logins required, no paywalls, no copyrights, and no usage restrictions. The index is now free and open data, forever.

39 of the 48 microfilms are now online at the Internet Archive, and the remaining nine films will be put online throughout the next few weeks.

Here's the link!: https://archive.org/details/nycmarriageindex

This includes (so far) 48 items scanned from 39 microfilms:

· MANHATTAN 1908-1929

· BROOKLYN 1908-1929

· BRONX 1914-1917

Coming soon are the final nine microfilms:

· BRONX 1918-1929

· QUEENS 1908-1930

· STATEN ISLAND 1908-1938

Essentially you are able to look at digitized microfilm images of these indexes. Once an entry of interest is found, you can then order the document. Read very carefully the intro page to a particular index, for example the one for Brooklyn 1919, as you are provided with exact and detailed instructions on how to place an order. With more than one kind of marriage record extant, you want to make sure that you request the correct one.

Did you find a “happy couple” from your family in the index records?

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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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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