At what point do you consider these documents to contain only personal
historical information of no value to the state? Do we include court cases,
vital statistics, deeds, criminal records, business records, tax
information, etc., etc., etc.? What other state functions should we trade
off--libraries, education, social service, research?  The current
legislature seems to be doing a good job of ridding itself of all of these.
We'll soon be left with the DMV and garbage collection. It is obvious that
not standing in line to get a license plate is more important than having
books in a library.

My apologies to the list, but as an educator I get a little steamed when the
DMV becomes more important than libraries and history is seen as something
of interest to only a few.

Barbara Vines Little, CG
PO Box 1273
Orange, VA 22960
phone/fax 540-832-3473 (evenings)
[log in to unmask]

CG is a service mark of the Board for Certification of
Genealogists®, used under license by board-certified associates who meet
genealogical competency standards prescribed for those programs.






----- Original Message -----
From: Bob ShrinerVA <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 10:01 AM
Subject: [VA-HIST] Destruction of Wills by the VA State Legislature


>    Preserving historical documents (including wills and other personal
> records) is certainly desirable; but many would question whether it should
> be the responsibility in perpetuity of the state government, especially in
> trade-off with other more  vital state responsibilties.  A more workable
> solution might be for those who are interested in the preservation of
these
> records to organize a privately-funded research institution whose mission
> would be to collect and maintain these records and to provide this
> information to the public, conduct related research, etc.  This would
> permit those who do not reside in VA the opportunity to assist in the
> effort and to influence the level of assistance by their contributions and
> active involvement in research, etc.  This would follow the pattern of the
> White House Historical Society and many others around the country that
have
> successfully taken responsibility for the preservation of historical
> materials.
>    Just a thought.
>         :-)       Bob Shriner
> ================================
> Robert D. Shriner, Ph.D.  ([log in to unmask])
> SHRINER-MIDLAND COMPANY
> Management & Economic Consultants
> Falls Church, Virginia  U.S.A.
> 703/237-8135    Fax: 703/533-9103
> ================================
>
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