Genealogy Lesson 14 - Issues of Privacy

I had a blog reader throw out a question about genealogy and privacy. They asked if I knew of any Virginia law that would prevent them from including a living person's information in their family tree, if the person in question objected. I would assume the intent was to publish this tree online or in print, in order to actually draw the objection.

I do not know of anything specifically, in a legal sense, but I would personally avoid publishing the information of anyone living. It is just not a good practice. Think of it like this...what is the first thing your credit card asks you when you call.?.."what is your mother's maiden name?" If you publish that information online, you are giving identity thieves a head start. Even obituaries tend to give away too much information in some cases.

Virginia law prevents the Department of Health from releasing any birth record for 100 years and any marriages, divorces or deaths for 50 years, unless you are an extremely close family member. I do not know of any other laws off the top of my head. I know you can get recent marriage licenses at county courthouses but they at least censor the Social Security number.

In general, if someone asks that you remove their information...I would. It is not worth ticking them off when they may have something you want down the road (photos, documents, etc.). I would personally be mad if someone published my kid's information online so I can agree with the person in question. As a matter of fact, I have never given anyone access to my personal family tree database file. I only share bits and pieces about deceased individuals, upon request. I keep the information of living individuals very private.

Now, if the person in question is the deceased child of a living person, that is a slightly different story. I would feel okay displaying that child's information but not their parent's info. The child probably had an obituary in the newspaper that gave all of their facts publicly anyway.

In short, use your judgment and respect the privacy of others. I would follow the "Golden Rule" of do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If you would not like a particular fact about you published, why would you publish the same thing for another person?  Guard your own information, especially your Social Security number.

Genealogy Lesson 9 - Ordering Vital Records

I want to get back to some basics today...where to find records.  This is a tough point for me to address because every city,  county and state is different.  I can say that most localities have at least maintained birth, marriage, divorce and death records.  Those are pretty much the basic forms of vital records.

 

If you need to find one of these records, start with the state in question.  Do an Internet search for the state name plus "vital statistics," "vital records" or "health department."  One of these searches should lead you to the official record-keeping agency for that state.  Their website should have a FAQ section that will explain how to obtain copies for genealogical research.

 

Keep in mind that most states have privacy laws that limit your access to vital records.  There is usually a waiting period of say 50 or 100 years for a given record.  Some states will give you an "un-certified" copy right now but it is not considered a legal document.  Other states will provide copies but then censor certain information, such as the cause of death or Social Security number.

 

Some states will be able to help you at the state-government level.  Others will refer you to the state archives for more information.  Sometimes they will tell you to contact the actual county or city in question.  One benefit at the county level is that copies are usually cheaper or even free.  As a note, I usually only go after county clerks if I need a copy of a will, deed or marriage bond...something not kept at the state level.

 

Be prepared to shell out some money though.  Most states charge stiff fees for copies of vital records.  Those fees usually include the search, one copy and return postage.  I think the fees also attempt to discourage people from requesting too many copies.  Take Social Security for example...A few years ago you could get copies of a deceased person's SS-5 for a few bucks.  Now it is almost thirty dollars per copy!  They simply jacked up the price to reduce demand.  They make the same amount of money overall yet they have to make fewer copies.

 

Getting copies of vital records can take a lot of work on your part.  There are a few one-stop shopping companies that will try to get the record for you, obviously for an increased fee.  I have never tried this type of service as I would just as soon take the time to do it for myself. 

 

Always remember that you usually forfeit any fees that you pay, to the state or a third party vendor, if no record is found.  It is a crap shoot but that never stops me from rolling the dice!  To keep my costs in check, I set aside about $20 per month that I can use to order records.  All you need to do is come up with a budget and a list of the records that you want.  As the months pass, go down your list and order them one by one.

Genealogy Lesson 6 - Primary versus Secondary Sources

When researching someone in my family tree, I always want to find their "basic" information.  That includes a birth, marriage and death date.  I also like to get their full name and burial location.  These are my goals for each person...at least my simple goals.

 

In most cases, it is easier to find these bits of information if you work backwards.  You should always trace the life of a person from their burial, back to their birth.  Their death occurred in more recent times and is therefore likely to be better documented.  Let's say you found a specific burial record, that would probably give you the place and date of death.  With that information, you can go looking for the death certificate.

 

Every locality is different but state health departments generally maintain birth, marriage, divorce and death records.  Most counties at least have copies of marriages at the local level.  Take Virginia for example, the state required that records be kept between 1853 and 1896 and then after 1912.  Births are public record after 100 years while marriage, divorce and death records go public after 50 years.  You should call the local county in question and ask about their specific holdings and requirements.

 

Once you get your hands on the death record, that should provide a birth date and location, the names of his/her parents and the locations of their births, plus the name of the person's spouse.  That information would be great...BUT...keep one important fact in mind...the dead person probably did not provide that information.  The data may have been provided by a child, neighbor, friend, spouse or other relation and therefore cannot be considered a primary source.  Only the death information is primary...everything else is secondary.

This "secondary" designation does not devalue the information provided on the death record.  Instead it is a caution flag.  The information is probably true or at least thought to be true by the person who provided it.  There is generally some grain of truth in the information.  Use that data as a road map to better sources, preferably primary sources.

I want to make sure we are clear on the definition of a primary and secondary source.  If grandpa provided his own birth date for his tombstone, that is a secondary source.  This is a little tricky but true.  Grandpa only knows his birth date as best as it was told to him.  His actual birth certificate would be a primary source.  I will tell you two funny stories about birth dates...

My mom and I went on a cruise when I was in middle school.  We were going to the Bahamas so she needed her birth certificate for Customs.  I went with her to vital statistics to get a copy but they were unable to find one.  It took several minutes of searching before they finally found it.  My mom was actually born in 1943, not 1942 as she was always told!  How did she gain a year and never know it?

My dad used to work with a man for many years at the local paper mill.  The man decided to retire and went to Social Security to file the necessary paperwork.  He came back the next day bewildered.  After a few hours at Social Security they had convinced him that his younger brother was older than he was!  His parents had thirteen children and apparently mixed up the birth dates at some point.  The man ended up working two more years before they would let him retire!

Primary sources are documents created as close as you can get to the actual event, where the information is provided by the most logical and relevant source.  Anything else is pretty much a secondary source.  In reality, probably nine out of ten sources are secondary or even greater removed from primary.  Keep this in mind when valuing the weight of one source versus another.

Census day 2010 and the 1940 census in 2012

A topic that you will hear more about in days to come is the 2010 census.  Census day will be April 1, 2010.  That is the day when any person living in the United States should be counted on an actual census document.  If a child was born on March 31, 2010, they would be recorded.  If a child was born on April 2, 2010, they would not be recorded.  The census will be a snapshot of life as it existed on April 1, 2010.

The purpose of a federal census is to record the number of people living in a specific area.  The government wants to know how many people live in each city, county, township, state, etc.  Population for an area is critical when it comes to the distribution of federal funds for hospitals, schools, emergency services, bridges, roads, etc.  Census forms will be mailed to you in March and must be filled out and returned.  If you do not fill out the form, a census taker will literally show up on your doorstep and make you fill it out.  There are only ten questions on the 2010 form and should be fairly easy to answer.

The data that we provide will be maintained and used by the government but most of the information we provide will be well guarded.  It is against federal law for anyone to divulge a name, address (including GPS coordinates), phone number or Social Security number off a census form.  Census Bureau employees are sworn to secrecy for life, not to disclose any confidential information.  Breaking this oath can result in a $250,000 fine, five years of imprisonment, or both.  With that in mind, I doubt anyone will be talking!  Actual census forms do not become public record for 72 years.  That means future genealogists cannot see the form that you fill out until April 1, 2082.

The next census that we can view as genealogists would be the 1940 census.  It will be available on April 2, 2012, that is if you go to the National Archives and wait in line.  When the 1930 census came out in 2002, Ancestry.com did a great job of scanning the images and getting them online within a few weeks.  They literally started putting images online within hours of the census being released.  It obviously took some time for indexes to be compiled but you could at least browse records for a given county or city.  I would imagine that the 1940 census will be a big deal for them as well.

From what I have seen, the 1940 census is quite similar to the 1920 and 1930 censuses as most of the same information is provided.  Unique features include recording where each person lived in 1935, recording the highest level of education completed and also detailed occupational information that included a person’s 1939 income.  As an interesting addition, anyone recorded on lines 14 and 29 of the census form were pulled out as a random sample.  Those individuals were subject to around 20 additional questions that should prove to be quite interesting.  Researchers are going to hope their ancestor fell on lines 14 or 29.  It could be like winning the lottery when that happens!

One last thing that I noticed about the 1940 census, the person in the family who provided the information is supposed to have a circled X beside their name.  That might not seem important but it will lend a lot toward weighing the accuracy of the information provided.  In past censuses, we do not know who provided the information.  It could have been an older child, a grandmother, the neighbor or a border.  At least this time we can see if the husband or wife provided the actual information.  And just think…it is only two years until we get to see it for ourselves!

SS-5 copies now have to be ordered via snail mail

It seems that the Social Security Administration has stopped allowing you to buy SS-5 copies online. All references to making online orders are gone from their site and all requests are referred to a mail-in PDF application. I guess something changed but the online process was sweet. To find the new, manual application form, go here: SS-5 copy application

Social Security SS-5 Site Down

I have been trying to order another SS-5 record but the site has been down for about a week now. I am starting to wonder if the link changed? If anyone finds the new link or knows anything about the outage, please let us know. The old link can be found here...SS-5

Footnote Pages Press Release

This is a follow-up to a posting I did yesterday, Footnote Pages. This is the actual press release from Footnote.com that will explain all of the specifics that perhaps I did not.

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Footnote.com Takes Social
Networking into the Past

Footnote.com launches
Footnote Pages at TechCrunch50

San Francisco -- September 10, 2008 Losing a loved one can result in a range of emotions, from the grief and sorrow to comfort, which often comes from reminiscing stories and memories with family and friends. The challenge arises when there is no single place where all of these stories can easily come together to be shared, enriched and preserved.

Now at Footnote.com, anyone can find or create Footnote Pages where users connect and share stories, photos, and information about the people important to them.

To kick-off the new Footnote Pages, Footnote.com today released over 80 million of these pages created from data from the Social Security Death Index. Most visitors will find existing pages about several deceased friends and family members already on the site.

Footnote.com was selected from over 1,000 applicants to launch Footnote Pages at this year’s TechCrunch50 held in San Francisco. Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote, demonstrated Footnote Pages to an audience of over 1,500 investors, bloggers, and major media outlets.

“We encourage people to upload their personal shoeboxes of photos and documents to Footnote.com,” explains Wilding. “Now with Footnote Pages, friends and family can come together to share stories and memories about the people they care about.”

Described as Facebook for the Deceased, [emphasis added] these pages feature a photo gallery, an interactive timeline and map, and other tools that bring people together to create a more colorful and rich picture of the past. “Social networking is not only for the younger generations any more,” explains Wilding. “We are seeing Baby Boomers contribute and connect online in increasing numbers. Footnote Pages are an easy way for this audience to interact with each other and learn things they would not otherwise know about deceased friends and family.”

Beyond profiling people, Footnote pages can also be used to document and discuss historical events or places including: the Vietnam War, the Assassination of JFK and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

-more-

Unlike other social networking sites, Footnote.com provides content that enables users to tell and share stories from the past. Through its partnership with the National Archives, Footnote.com has digitized over 43 million documents including historical newspapers, military records, photos and more.

Footnote.com adds about 2 million new records to the site every month.

Visit Footnote.com to learn more about Footnote Pages and get a new perspective on the lives of your own friends and family who have passed away.

About Footnote.com
Footnote.com is a history website where real history might just surprise you. Footnote.com features millions of searchable original documents, providing users with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

About TechCrunch50
Founded in 2007 by leading technology blog TechCrunch and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the TechCrunch50 conference provides a platform for early-stage, and frequently unfunded, companies to launch for the first time to the technology industry’s most influential venture capitalists, corporations, angel investors, fellow entrepreneurs, and the international media. Companies are selected to participate exclusively on merit. TechCrunch50 is supported by corporate sponsors Google, Microsoft, MySpace, and Yahoo!, as well as venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital http://www.sequoiacap.com, Mayfield Fund http://www.mayfield.com, Clearstone Venture Partners http://www.clearstone.com, Charles River Ventures http://www.crv.com, Founders Fund and Fenwick & West http://www.fenwick.com."

Footnote Pages

Footnote.com, a rival to Ancestry of sorts, has launched a new feature - Footnote Pages. I have not played with it too much but it seems interesting. They basically took the Social Security Death Index and made individual pages for every person contained within that index. Each page contains some basic information on the person, whatever was included in the SSDI, plus a historical time line and map. It also allows contributors to add photos, stories, facts and links. Think of this as a MySpace for dead people.

It is a pretty neat idea in general, giving a social aspect to genealogy. You can leave notes on their page telling others to contact you for more info. It is a way to both share what you know about a deceased person plus meet others interested in that individual. I would not expect a lot of connections to be found as these people have not been dead very long. You probably know their descendants to begin with. If Footnote Pages took all of the names from like the 1850 census instead, maybe it would help make more connections, some older sources of names.

I am pretty sure you have to be a member of Footnote to use all of the features. I am a member so I was able to play around with it a little bit. I added a few things to the page for my grandmother, Pearl Malissa Lawson Lett. It took me about one minute to add a photo and a link to a blog post I did on her family. The program flows very smoothly.

Overall, I think this is a neat idea but I doubt it will catch on with established researchers. They are less interested with modern history and this pertains to life, pretty much after 1950. Some of the people in the SSDI were born in the late 1800s but not a large population. I think people might find updating a few pages fun but will get bored with it in short order. If Footnote Pages could import data from your GEDCOM, that might make it more interesting and allow for importing more data.

Younger people just getting interested in genealogy will like this, especially to start the ball rolling. It is a social format that they can relate to and it will probably spike their interest. In all honesty, it would probably serve Footnote better to give this part of their site away for free. They can sell ads to help bring in revenue. Younger people are probably not going to subscribe to such a service when things like MySpace and Facebook are free. This advertising model brings in millions of dollars for them.

If any of you are members of Footnote, try out the Pages section and let me know what you think. If not, you should be able to get a free trial by clicking on one of the links in this posting. I think it is only for like three days but that is long enough to try it out. If you have a membership or get a trial, you can check out the page for my grandmother, the one I was playing with. Just click here...

Second Social Secuirty SS-5 Test

I thought I would let you guys know that I sent off a second online application for an SS-5 record. I submitted it at 10:45PM on Friday, August 8, 2008 and received it today. That was basically twelve days and only eight business days. I would say that the Social Security office has got their act together!

Unlike last time, this time I struck gold with the SS-5. I was able to prove the middle names for two of my ancestors! They are now known to me as Joseph Addison Vass and Almeta Richardson Wyatt Vass. For years they were simply Joseph A. and Almeta R. This time it was well worth the $27!

Social Security SS-5 Follow-up - It only took 15 days!

This is a follow-up to a post that I made on July 19, 2008, "Social Security SS-5 Forms Available to Order Online"

In this recent post I talked about ordering an SS-5 form from the Social Security Administration, using their new online process. I submitted a test order on Saturday, July 19, 2008 and received it back on Saturday, August 3, 2008. It took only 15 days from start to finish, a much improved turnaround over past orders. My guess would be that the $27.00 price tag has reduced their total number of orders, helping to increase efficiency. With the SS-5 I received a written reply from a Freedom of Information Officer dated August 1, 2008. That means it only took ten business days to address my order.

I was a little disappointed with the copy quality and with the information that Annie Lawson Spain provided. She did not put her middle name nor those of her parents. I basically wasted $27.00 in this case but it was worth a shot. I will probably turn around and order the SS-5 of one of her siblings and hope for better luck next time!

Social Security SS-5 Forms Available to Order Online

I just found out that the Social Security Administration allows you to order a Social Security Number Application (Form SS-5) of a deceased person online. I used to order these quite frequently by mail but you can now do it with a credit card online. The cost has gone up a lot, now $27.00 each, but the information contained can be critical.

My main use of these documents has been to find people's middle names. I just order a record today for my great-great-aunt. I really have no great interest in her, especially not for $27.00, but I am hoping she put her father's full name on the application. Her father is my great-great-grandfather and I only know his name as William R. Lawson. I really want to find out his middle name so this is my best shot.

If this aunt's record does not pan out, William had one other child that lived long enough to get a Social Security number. Ordering these records is a bit of a crap shoot but it is worth taking the chance. I would love to find out William's middle name and these are probably my last shot. I am running out of records so you do what you got to do.

I will let you all know when I receive the document in the mail so you can get an idea of how long it takes. It used to take about two months. Let's see if doing it online makes things go faster. Below is a sample of an SS-5, in case you were curious about the document in question.


You can order you own records at the following link: Click Here for SS-5 Order Form

Privacy Laws, Public Records & Identity Protection

Privacy laws limit the amount of information you can find on a given individual, especially those who are living. Most states censor birth, marriage, death and divorce records for at least fifty to one hundred years. It is important to protect your information and keep you identity as private as possible. In the age of credit card fraud and cybercrime, you can never be too careful.

Social Security numbers and mother’s maiden names are the most covenanted information for criminals so few local governments or credit card companies use them anymore. People are typically assigned a driver’s license number, instead of using their Social Security on that critical piece of identification. They also advise us not to carry your Social Security card on your person. If you wallet or purse is stolen, little damage can be done with your driver’s license number alone.

As strange as it sounds, genealogist and family history buffs need to be careful how they share research. Giving out your date of birth and you mother’s maiden name to a fellow researcher may seem harmless but it can come back to haunt you. In the wrong hands, someone could possibly use that information to access private accounts, such as credit cards or store charge accounts. With this in mind, also be careful what you list in a loved one’s obituary by limiting the use of maiden names and specific dates.

We need to be especially careful with the information of our children. If a criminal were to get hold of a toddler’s vital information, they could do irreparable damage to that child’s credit. If a baby’s Social Security number were stole at birth, a criminal would have upwards of twenty years to destroy that child’s credit – without notice. Until the child was old enough to apply for credit, no one would realize what damage had been done.

Social networks like My Space and Facebook are great. They are places to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Just remember that whatever you put on the Internet stays on the Internet. Giving out too much personal information can be more harmful than your parents seeing you risque pictures from Spring Break in your online photo album. Avoid posting your full name, address, phone number, current school and similar information. The last thing you want is some weird-o showing up after your chemistry class who knows everything about you. Have fun online but be careful.