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Hello All-
Just a follow up on the Attorney General's (AG) opinion that caused a bit of chaos in the Texas county clerk offices--including about 25 (of 254) that shut down completely.
The AG has agreed to a 60 day stay on the opinion in order to allow the Texas Legislature to act. There has already been a bill introduced (HB 2061) to delete the section of the law passed in 2005 that deals with SSN in documents. That bill is pending in the Energy Resources Committee (I'll explain in a minute why there) while they try to work out a compromise. So things are on hold for the moment.
This could be of great concern to genealogists who deal with Texas records. While we usually work with older records (before the enaction of the Social Security Act), there has been already been a reaction by the county clerks that will effect us--they are feeling compelled to shut down their computer stations and not allow the public to do some records searches (not to mention one sheriff in one county shut down the county clerks office and put yellow crime scene tape around it! It would be funny if it wasn't so worrisome!). And until the fallout is complete from this opinion, some clerks may be hesitant about copying ANY public records.
The reason it is the Energy Resource Committee is because it adversely effects the oil and gas industry because landmen routinely search records to ascertain mineral ownership. This give genealogists a pwoerful (and strange!) ally in this legislation--in addition to title companies and some insurance companies.
I've been concerned for a while about the current trend of severely limiting access to public records. If anyone has tried lately to get a Colorado death certificate (As I have, for 1914!), you know what I mean. While I understand the need for caution, I am not sure that antique records are a danger to anyone.
I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this. I have long thought genealogist should become politically active in their state legislatures to help gain funding for libraries and records mangement. Now it appears we may have to be active in the preservation of access to public records.
Well, enough of my soap box. Feel free to email me if you like.
Happy Hunting!
Andrea
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