We Want Our Records Back.
And we get them! More than sixty million records reclaimed so far
We’re Reclaim The Records, a new not-for-profit activist group of genealogists, historians, researchers, and open government advocates. We identify important genealogical records sets that ought to be in the public domain but which are being wrongly restricted by government archives, libraries, and agencies. We file Freedom of Information and Open Data requests to get that public data released back to the public. And if the government doesn’t comply, we take them to court.
Then we digitize everything we win and put it all online for free, without any paywalls or usage restrictions, so that it can never be locked up again. Learn more about our work and sign up for our newsletter.
Help us reclaim even more.
We started our work in New York City in 2015, and have since filed more than fifteen Freedom of Information lawsuits against various government agencies, with several cases in progress right now. Your support helps us continue the fight for open records nationwide.
Recent Records Requests
Geographic Index to New York City Births, late 19th to early 20th centuries
Index to New York State Deaths (Outside of New York City), 1880-1956
Index to New York City Marriage Licenses, 1930-1995
New York City Birth Certificates, 1910-1917
New Jersey Birth, Marriage, and Death Indices, 1901-1903 and 1901-1914
The Connecticut Genealogy Index
The New Jersey Geographic Birth Index and Delayed Birth Index, 1901-1929
New Jersey Marriage Index, 1901-2016
Social Security Applications and Claims Index
All already-digitized New York City historical records and their associated text metadata. (Yes, all.)
The Maryland Motherlode: Births, Marriages, Deaths, and Naturalizations
Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File
Missouri Birth Index, 1920(ish)-2015
Index to New York City domestic partnership records, 1993-2017
New York City death certificates 1949-1968 and nullification of NYC DOH records access rules
Index to Deaths in Buffalo, New York, 1852-1944
The Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968)
Index to Deaths in Albany, New York, 1880-1915
The Mississippi State Death Index (1912-1943)
Index to New York City Marriage Licenses, 1996-2017
Index to New York City Marriage Licenses, 1908-1929
Index to Deaths in Yonkers, New York, c. 1870-1915
Billions of Digital Images and Associated Text Metadata Created Through the United States National Archives and Records Administration’s Digitization Partnership Program
Brooklyn (Kings County) “Old Town” Records
Missouri Death Index, 1968-2015
Index to New York State Births (Outside of New York City), 1881-1942
List of Registered Voters in New York City for 1924
Index to New York State Marriages (Outside of New York City), 1881-2017
Wyoming Marriage, Death, and Divorce Indices, 1900-1965
Washington State Marriage, Divorce, and Death Indices, c. 1907-2017
New Jersey Death Index, 1904-2017
Lectures and Presentations
Upcoming Talks
August 1: Lecture at the annual IAJGS Conference in Cleveland, OH
August 22-23: Two presentations at the annual Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference in Washington, DC
September 12: Lecture at the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society in Concord (San Francisco Bay Area), CA
September 19: Lecture at the annual Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Professional Management Conference in Salt Lake City, UT
October 2: Lecture via videoconference to JGS of Cleveland, Beachwood, OH
October 19: Lecture at the Irish Family History Forum in Bethpage (Long Island), NY
Recent Talks
2019: Recorded lecture with live Q&A at Capital Region JGS (Albany, NY); Online Lecture for Legacy FamilyTree Webinars; hosted the bimonthly #genchat; San Ramon Valley Genealogy Society (Danville, CA);
2018: JGS of Washington State (Bellevue, WA); Mt. Diablo Genealogical Society (Walnut Creek, CA); Fairfax Genealogical Society (Vienna, VA); JGS of Maryland (Baltimore, MD); National Genealogical Society annual conference (Grand Rapids, MI)
2017: Live-Streamed Lecture at the 2017 IAJGS conference (Orlando, FL); Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society; San Luis Obispo County Genealogy Society; Oakland FamilySearch Library with the San Francisco Bay Area JGS; JGS of Cleveland (Beachwood, OH, via videoconference)
2016: JGS of Long Island (Plainview, NY); The Center For Jewish History (New York, NY); Lecture at the 2016 IAJGS conference (Seattle, WA); San Francisco Bay Area JGS (San Francisco, CA)
See more of our presentations, slides, videos, and webinars