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New Jersey Planning to Block Public Access to Vital Records Article posted: 13 April, 2006 By: Rick Roberts, Global Genealogy & History Shoppe Well-meaning legislators and bureaucrats around the world are increasingly zealous in their pursuit of increased opportunities to 'protect' the privacy and security of their constituents. Unfortunately the boundaries of their zealousness is often unrestricted by common sense. New Jersey, the birthplace of my own great-grandmother, has now jumped onto the privacy/security bandwagon. Joan M. Lowry, President of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey explains the situation:
In light of recent discussions regarding New Jersey, USA Vital Records
access, I thought that you should have more information on the serious
piece of pending legislation that would remove virtually all Vital
Records from the realm of Public Records, Assembly Bill 1390. In
addition to making the records non-public, the bill would further
restrict who would be allowed to obtain copies and would allow only
"viewing" of the records to others.The bill also would make it against the law to "transfer, sell, share, reproduce or otherwise disclose the information to another party." There would be penalties for disclosing the information that could be serious fines or even jail time. I don't know how anyone can write a history book, article, or anything else if you can't share the information, or provide a documented source for the information. The proposed bill, Assembly Bill 1390, is a product of the Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee. You can see the proposed language at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/A1500/1390_I1.PDF. You can also get there from the Genealogical Society of New Jersey's website www.gsnj.org by going to the page for Legislative Alerts (the direct page link is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~njgsnj/legislation.html.) There is a summary sheet on the Genealogical Soceity of New Jersey website that gives more information on the bill and proposed amended language. There are also sample letters for use by individuals and by societies and organizations. See the Legislative Alerts page on the GSNJ website I would welcome any comments or assistance that can be offered to help us get the bill changed before it is too late! My email address is: mailto:jml-gsnj@earthlink.net Thank you very much. Sincerely, Joan M. Lowry, President Genealogical Society of New Jersey www.gsnj.org Many of you have New Jersey roots. Others of you have no New Jersey roots but can imagine the domino effect this could start. I encourage readers to proactively contact Joan to find out what out what you can do to help. One little voice doesn't make much political difference. Lots of little voices can make a big difference! Rick Roberts GlobalGenealogy.com Inc.
The Global Gazette is sponsored by GlobalGenealogy.com: 
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