Massachusetts Genealogical Council
Massachusetts Genealogical Council
Shirley M. Barnes Records Access Award
Who Was Shirley M. Barnes?
A little slip of a woman, frequently donning an inviting smile, and a big orange “Save Massachusetts Records” button, Shirley M. Barnes was committed to advocating for record preservation and access. Weekly she rode the commuter rail from Concord to Boston to walk the statehouse, visiting with legislators. Her work brought about the 1983 Massachusetts vital records law which mandated the transfer of vital records to the state archives in five-year intervals. After 25 years of dedicated service as MGC’s Civil Records Director, Shirley tirelessly stayed on the board, mentoring her successors, until attending meetings became a physical challenge.
Shirley passed away on August 24, 2018, at the age of 95, only eight months after her husband. She is survived by two children and a genealogy community that she had served for decades. (Her obituary may be accessed here.) Shirley’s efforts served to establish a model for other New England states to follow in protecting access to public records for research.
The Shirley M. Barnes Records Access Award
The Massachusetts Genealogical Council, at the annual meeting on February 17, 2019, established an annual award to be given in memory of Shirley M. (Armstrong) Barnes at a luncheon, held in odd years at the New England Regional Genealogical Conference and in even years at the MGC Annual Seminar. The award will recognize people who emulate Shirley’s volunteer spirit and whose dedication to records access has made a significant impact for genealogists.
The award takes the form of a wooden book clock. It is a duplicate of the award MGC gave to Shirley when she retired from the Civil Records Director job after 25 years of service. She treasured her book clock.
2023 Award: David E. Rencher
Susan O'Connor (President of MGC) and David E. Rencher
David E. Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer for FamilySearch International, was awarded the 2023 Shirley M. Barnes Record Access Award at the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) luncheon at New England Regional Genealogical Conference 2023.
In his 43-year career at Family Search, David E. Rencher has been instrumental in encouraging collaboration between the NEHGS, FamilySearch, and other genealogical, historical, and governmental bodies to gather and preserve records. David recognizes the value of preserving many different
types of record sets and has been able to reach out to gather and preserve them—including unusual records such the oral genealogies of Africa.
Massachusetts has benefitted from FamilySearch’s ongoing partnership with the Massachusetts Archives, making over 40 collections available online for free at FamilySearch —with more being worked on, including the 1926-1930 vital records indexes. Other activities that benefitted from David’s attention were RootsTech, the War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions project, the Social Security Death Index, and the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors system. FamilySearch’s surge in online images during the pandemic made it possible for us to research safely from home.
David served as president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and is now a trustee on the board of the National Genealogical Society.
2022 Award:
Morse, Kehs, and Weintraub for One-Step Webpages
Photo courtesy of the JDW Talks channel on YouTube.
Stephen P. Morse, Ph.D., Joel D. Weintraub, Ph.D., and David R. Kehs, Ph.D., are the men behind One-Step Webpages, the go-to for genealogists searching datasets subject to name complexity, such as census images, vital records, and passenger lists. Each tool on One-Step Webpages allows genealogists to specify what they want in a simple, easy to use manner. The tool then builds the URL of the website that would contain that information, sometimes in the form of a query to the website, sometimes as the URL itself. The One-Step site supports
fuzzy names that take into account Eastern European languages. This Beidler-Morse Phonetic Matching tool was a game changer.
In reading about the work of these men, it is clear that they work together and are generous of their time, ideas, and tools. The tools are free to use by everyone. Both the Italian and Jewish genealogy sites in New York City use these tools in their own websites. When asked, the men always see themselves as part of a co-operative working group. For more about the genesis of the site, see Dr. Weintraub's video on YouTube.
2021 Award: Jan Meisels Allen
Since 2003 Jan has been the chairperson of the Public Records Access Monitoring Committee (PRAMC) of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS). She served on the IAJGS Board of Directors from 2004-2013. Since 2004 she represents IAJGS as a sponsoring member on the Records Preservation and Access Coalition (RPAC). In 2015 she was awarded the IAJGS Volunteer of the Year award. In 2013, the National Genealogical Society (NGS) awarded Jan the President’s Citation. In addition to her international and national work, she has served the boards of local Jewish genealogical societies in California. She continues to research her own Polish, Hungarian, and Galician roots. Jan’s work for records access is seen in her frequent Records Access Alerts on behalf of PRAMC. In recent years, Jan’s support of MGC in her letters citing law and precedent have been instrumental in our successes.
You can sign up for PRAMC's records access alerts by filling out the form for Subscribing to the IAJGS Public Records Access Alerts at https://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts.
2020 Award: Rich Venezia
On April 4, 2020, at the opening of the Virtual Conference "Origins and Destinations," the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) awarded its second annual Shirley Barnes Records Access Award to Rich Venezia, Founder, of Records Not Revenue. The award is an engraved book clock, a replica of the award presented to Shirley Barnes July 14, 2007, upon her retirement as Civil Records Director of MGC.
Rich Venezia is a Pittsburgh based expert of twentieth-century immigration records in the genealogical field. Rich spearheaded a public campaign, Records Not Revenue, to leverage the power of social media to persuade U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to withdraw fee hikes before the window for public comment closes. Through his efforts, the agency received over 39,000 public comments detailing the adverse consequences not only from genealogists but to other government organizations.
2019 Award: Brooke Schreier Ganz
(MANCHESTER, NH: April 4, 2019) At the opening luncheon of the New England Regional Genealogical Conference, the Massachusetts Genealogical Council (MGC) awarded its first annual Shirley M. Barnes Records Access Award to Brooke Schreier Ganz, Founder and President of Reclaim the Records. The award is an engraved book clock, a replica of the award presented to Shirley Barnes on July 14, 2007 upon her retirement as Civil Records Director of MGC.
Brooke is a friendly, outspoken mother of two residing in California. A computer programmer, she developed an open source records management software and is a lifetime volunteer with the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Researching 95% of her ancestors who resided in New York City
proved difficult from California. Brooke promptly understood that public records should be accessible to all; especially to those whose taxes paid for them. Drawing from the success of her personal record access and publishing project, she founded the non-profit Reclaim the Records which utilizes the Freedom of Information Laws and Acts to reclaim public records, making them accessible for free, to all genealogists.