Genealogical Databases Getting Harder to Access

Mark Baard points to a story running at biomedcentral.com titled "Gain for science is history buffs' loss", summarizing "Privacy laws enacted by Iceland's Parliament in light of DeCode's research now apply to genealogies, restricting who can access information that was once public."

Comments

Re:Makes sense to me.

[_Sharp'r_]

Typically the way most freely available genealogical databases handle privacy/security issues is to only make available information about the deceased. That prevents stealing live birthdates, connecting live people to their mother's maiden name, etc... If an identity thief knows enough to connect you with your dead ancestors, then they already know your mother's maiden name.

One thing missing from most services is a way to blind-contact living relatives that they have records for, but aren't listing. Usually when researching your own family, getting in touch with someone that is a relative of yours and already doing their genealogy can save you years of duplicate research.

In the past (at least in the US) you had to travel to central library locations to do research on microfilm. About 10-15 years ago they started storing cd-rom sets, but its only been recently that you could do records research all over the world from the comfort of your home via the internet.

Its not all done. There are huge projects underway around the world to digitize old records. Until they are more complete, eventually you get through what's been done and have to go back to the routine of visiting cemetary churches and small government archives to try and gather info.

Hopefully this application of privacy rules doesn't set back the millions of us that like to research our family history. Can you image being told you have to travel across the world and prove your identity and relationship before being allowed to access government records they could just stick on the internet for you? Sounds like a step backwards to me.