History lesson: Don't try to sell official county records

Did Grandpa's old trunk or Great Uncle Alfred's house yield some sort of old record book from a county or state government? Maybe you have the volume labeled Marriage Record 5. Perhaps your cousin told that they had the original records of the early tax lists for the county. In many states the law prohibits the selling of such items whether online or at an antique shop. Many dealers know that they should contact the state archives or county officials if they come upon such an item.

An article in the Arkansas Times blog  tells the story of original tax records from Jefferson County, Arkansas that were being offered on Craig's List for $10,000. Yes, you read that correctly.

Thank goodness someone saw the ad and contacted the proper authorities and the records are being returned to the county.

Read that blog post here.

Some older records that neither the county or state officials deem worth keeping may be ok for you to own. Check with officials. Better safe than sorry or embarrassed. Archivists and others check shops and online auction sites all the time for missing records.

Archivist of the U.S. to answer questions online

Tomorrow, Thursday, 27 January 2011, David S. Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States will be online via the Washington Post's website. This will take place at noon Eastern Time. Click here for details or to leave a question. Then at noon EST check back to see the questions and answers. This appearance is in connection to the alteration of a document at the National Archives that I discussed earlier this week.

I have another appointment at that hour but will check in later to read the conversation.

Breaking News: New Archivist of the United States to appear at the FGS Conference!

Breaking News from the Federation of Genealogical Societies. I am so excited about this as his schedule is so full but he is taking time to meet with genealogists. atch the FGS Conference News Blog for more breaking news in the next few weeks.

"FGS is pleased to announce that the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, will be speaking at our FGS Focus on Societies Luncheon on Wednesday, August 18th. If you have already registered you can still purchase a ticket -- this luncheon is open to everyone! Mr. Ferriero will be speaking on the Citizen-Archivist and about the War of 1812 Digitization Project and will also have a question and answer period. We wish to thank Mr. Ransom Love, and the FamilySearch team for graciously welcoming the Archivist to speak in their place at this luncheon. To register for the conference and to add this luncheon click here.