Has anyone else heard that they are closing court records?
Apparently as part of some privacy act from the Feds, records kept in County Clerks offices will soon become unattainable. Especially those less than 100 years old and possibly as early as 50 years old. As a response to the new law many court houses across the nation are completely closing their records access to everyone, including genealogists. Preston County in WV has already closed their doors and Upshur County they confirmed the information and suggest that all courthouses will soon be closing to research.
Is there anything we can do to stop this?
Just to add to what already has been said…
vital statistics (birth/death records) are the ones that present problems in identity theft. That is just a small portion of what is kept at any courthouse.
Keep in mind, that these vital records ONLY are common in the last 100 yrs (give or take, depending on state). In general, any research before 1900 is not going to involve those documents anyway. Getting to 1900 is actually easier than most persons think, and is a small part of research.