We humans are not the only ones that greet the new year with resolve to do better or fix things. As genealogists, some of the associations and societies we support also come forward to bring attention to major issues and opportunities for the year as did the Records Preservation and Access Coalition (RPAC) by outlining for us three major ones:
Protecting the Seattle NARA facility from closure and sale.
Relocating the historical U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Records from the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service to the National Archives where they can be secured and preserved for public use.
Insuring that an appropriate federal agency carry forward and improve access to accurate fact-of-death information genealogists used to have through the Social Security Administration's Death Master File (called the Social Security Death Index by genealogy providers).
Read more about these issues important to all genealogists in RPAC's Briefing Papers in the links above. See the RPAC announcement at https://www.recordsadvocate.org/records-challenges-issues-and-opportunities-in-2021/. In fact, when you visit, why don't you subscribe to RPAC's Records Access blog? Just enter your email and press the Subscribe button on the right.
MGC is the umbrella genealogy group for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its president Barbara Mathews is the official state liaison with RPAC. The missions of these groups are mutually supportive. If you would also like to support records preservation and access goals, please consider membership in MGC. Please visit our website for more information. https://www.massgencouncil.org/membership
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