THE HOLLINGSWORTH REGISTER

VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3.

     I, as an amateur genealogist, in the late fifties and early sixties, during which time I naturally was almost wholly devoted to the research on my own family lines, received many a raw deal from public officials. Not the majority, mind you. But enough to be stymied in certain key research areas: Rockford, Illinois and Newton, Iowa, to name two.

     Since those early days of my work, I have noticed that, with the blossoming of the bud of interest in family history and genealogy, there has been a parallel growth of opposition from officials who have "custody" of the public records. Rod McCuen's search for his real father, and the closing of many adoption files and birth records in many states illustrates my point. It seems that, as long as only a tiny minority used such records, "officialdom" took no notice. But now that many are interested, the same officials seem to have decided that these records aren't public anymore.

     I was given many a raw deal, in the form of a sop, a means, apparently, to get me out of the way. Lulu C. Adams was County Clerk and Clerk of the District Court in 1960 at Newton, Iowa. I paid a fee of five dollars for a "search" of the records for Frederick Hollingsworth's estate file. I was sent only a brief quotation of but one page in that voluminous file. A sop. My readers surely can cite much more aggravating examples in their own experience. (That file is published in this issue, pages 53-56.)

     Of course, some will say, genealogy is not as imprtant as are "other matters." But I say: Is that so? It is all relative; all a matter of priority. I choose to place genealogy first. Let others have their priorities. But, like an enraged wolverine, a cornered polecat, I will show my fangs, spue my venom and strike with my claws, in defense of my priorities! If I do not, who will do it for me? If petty officials had been left to do the great deeds of history, it would have been a most insipid story indeed; a tasteless, namby-pamby, weak-kneed "do nothing to rock the boat and don't let the common man do it, either" history.

     Any county clerk or other "guardian" of public records who wants to challenge me on this point, let him go a-begging. They have never cared to listen to my protests, always quoting "the rules" to me. Why should I give them a platform? The other side of the story will NOT be published in Hollingsworth Register. The public records have already been garnered in storehouses of those who want to either destroy them or remove them from all public access, or to collect the proverbial "fee" for their use. To hell with their side of the story.

     If I had my way, the public records - including adoption and birth records - would be open, free and clear from any and all restrictions, (barring gross misuse, that to be adjudged on an individual abuse bases only, with no general restrictive act applicable) with no fee payable for the personal search. Thus these precious documents would forever