The Rawlin(g)s Rollin(g)s
Family History Association
Volume 1 No. 4 December 1988
Dear Rawlin(g)s/Rollin(g)s Cousins:
Compliments
of the season. I had hoped to get this issue to you before Christmas but
didn't make it.
Recently,
I came across some information which I believe will be of interest to most of
you. The first, and most important in my opinion, is the proposed change in the
Ohio Vital Records Law. This summer, a bill passed by the Ohio House of
Representatives would drastically alter the law governing access to vital
records held by state and local authorities. Deeply concerned, the Ohio
Genealogical Society, after hearing from their branches and other interested
parties, have opened a dialogue with the state in order to effect a compromise.
The state had decided that since all records were going to be placed in
computer files there was no need to keep the old birth, death, marriage deed,
etc., records. The storm of protest engendered by their intention to destroy
paper records brought about the dialogue between OGS and the state to resolve
the problem. It will be interesting to see how it is managed. I am bringing
this to your attention so that you may, either individually or through your
local genealogical and/or historical societies and libraries, keep tabs on what
your own state government may propose with regard to destruction of records
which they feel take up unnecessary space when those records have been
transferred to computer files.
Another
project with a happier connotation is the Illinois State Genealogical Society
Bible Records Project. This group has taken on the massive job of collecting
and preserving family bible records which will be published later. Since each
family is most familiar with the spellings of names and places and dates
recorded in their family bibles, and since the ISGS recognizes no one wants to
part with the precious bible, they have a form which you can fill out from your
bible and send to them. If any of you have ancestors who lived for any length
of time in Illinois a n d wish the information from your bible to be placed in
these ISGS files, you may write to: Lyn Boyd Reener, ISGS,...609 W.
Buchanan...Litchfield, IL 62056.
The third item of interest
concerns those of you who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War from West
Virginia. that state's Department of Culture and History has almost 5,000
unclaimed medals stored in their archives. Anyone who can establish a line of
descent from one of these men, supplemented by documents or copies of
documents, may submit a claim for a medal. I obtained the list for the
Association. Anyone interested, send an SASE with 25˘ stamp and I'11 send it to you along with the address and other pertinent
information. As far as the RAWLIN(G)S/ROLLIN(G)S name is concerned, there are
four: ANTHONY, JOSEPH, REUBEN and GEORGE ROLLINS.
The final
memo concerns renewal of your subscription to the newsletter for 1989. There is
a renewal slip enclosed, and I hope you all will consider our work this past
year sufficient cause to help us again next year.
That's
enough from me. Because of your correspondence, once again the Newsletter is
YOUR effort, with contributions from many of you.
THE
EDITOR