With our great thirst for knowledge, we the family history seekers, biography information detectives or just because we want to know about someone have to come to the sad realization that we are not allowed to know everything about any given subject. People are entitled to their privacy and over the years that privacy was always assumed unless the person gave out the information themselves. Of course, there are now and have been in the past unscrupulous persons who can take personal information and use it to create harm, commit fraud or just become someone else for a while.
While doing research on old records we find that a lot of information, if it still exists, can be found and is available on a lot of geneaology websites for free or from the county collecting the data for a small price. Yes, the county requires that you sign a form stating that you are using your research strictly for family history research but for a couple of dollars you can get someone’s birth certificate, death certificate and even a copy of the marriage and/or divorce agreements. That is if, the records are older than 75 to 100 years, depending on the state requirements and if they are still in existence or even required to be collected at all.
Heck the late 1800s and early 1900s newspapers are filled with the comings and goings of just about every citizen within the city/county they serve. Up to including who is off visiting someone’s relatives or on vacation, who is visiting them from out-of-town, who came into town to conduct business, who was staying at the local hotels and when someone died, had a baby or gotten married. Of course, those last three can still be found in the local newspapers if the family wants to pay for the announcements. Of course, your neighbors back then kept up with the goings on of everyone they knew with visitors coming over and sitting on the front porch gossiping, going into the beauty/barber shop catching up on the latest with everyone there or hanging out at the local watering hole. Now everyone texts, Snapchats, Facetimes, and emails.
These kinds of informational sources are a researchers bread and butter. Even the Federal and State’s Census records have lots of great information, not all of it accurate, of course, but from the time the records were kept until 1940 and in some states 1945, you could find the name, address, age, and other information about every single person who was alive and in that place on the dates those surveys were taken. The 1950’s census still has about 9 years to go before they are released to the general public. And about 95% of the 1890 Federal Census was destroyed in a fire some years ago.
Today, any information younger than 50 years is really restricted to those who it actually pertains to and can prove it belongs to them. The privacy of everyone has been so open since the internet has been in existence that people are really fed up with their personal information being stolen by bad guys to use in their dastardly money-making schemes or just because they are bored and wanted to see if they could steal it.
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Until next time…
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