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Re: Examples requested



Piers,

What an interesting project.  I hope you have a complete success.  I'm sure
you've already thought of such issues as these, but just in case, here goes:

A)     Holocaust survivors whose Swiss bank accounts were denied them
because of sloppy records keeping and

B)     whose insurance payments were denied for the same reasons

C)     in the U.S. there is a huge lawsuit underway by Native Americans who
allege that the Bureau of Indian Affairs cannot prove that the Bureau's
trust funds administered on their behalf were well run, again because of
sloppy records keeping..

D)     another lawsuit concerns the Mexican "guest-workers" (the "brazeros"
who worked in the U.S. during W.W.II) who had pension contributions deducted
from their wages and deposited in Mexican banks.  Those funds have gone
astray and the Mexican bank deny having the appropriate records, saying that
they will "consider" any claims individuals wish to make as long as the
individual has proof that the funds were deposited.

E)     the issue of restoration of art works which went astray during World
War II is another records-related one.  Organizations (both public and
private) and individuals have had great problems reclaiming their property
because of the effects of the war on records.

F)     also interesting is the opposite occurrence, when the lack of records
has been to the benefit of individuals.  There are stories (which may be
apocryphal) that during the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1903 the
U.S. immigration records were destroyed.  They therefore allowed the
re-registration of naturalized immigrants and supposedly the number of
citizens of Chinese extraction tripled during the process, due to document
fraud.  The destruction of records in Germany during the war allowed some
people to change their identities, such as happened to the author of a
recently published diary of a Jewish history professor who survived after
his local records office went up in flames during a raid and he took
advantage of the situation.  After the 1972 earthquake and the subsequent
revolution in Nicaragua destroyed many of the civil registries in the
country, the government made it possible to re-register any civil event such
as birth, death or marriage based on the taking of an oath that the
re-registered information was true.  When I was doing immigrant visa work in
Managua during the early 90s I found several instances of people who used
this opportunity to "improve" their status.  A similar situation occurred in
my home state of Kentucky after we lost some 24 of our courthouses during
the Civil War in the 1860s and people re-registered their deeds, often
expanding their holdings.  To this day most land in Kentucky (such as my
farm there) is recorded as "XXX acres, more or less" partly because of this
issue and compounded by generally sloppy surveying to begin with.

Well, I've rattled on more than I should.  If I think of anything else, I'll
let you know.  Keep us posted on the project.  It should be fascinating.

Regards,

J. Thomas Converse, Chief
Records Management Section
Inter-American Development Bank
1300 New York AV, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20577
(202) 623-3010
thomasc@iadb.org



-----Original Message-----
From: Piers Cain [mailto:pcain@IRMT.BTINTERNET.COM]
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 8:05 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Examples requested


Dear Colleagues,

IRMT is working with a documentary film producer to develop a proposal for a
television documentary on the importance of  records in modern society.
Were are looking for examples of individuals whose rights have been
adversely affected by the loss of records, either paper or electronic?

We would be grateful if you would forward to us any information you might
have.

Many thanks.

Piers Cain
Director of Research, Development and Education
International Records Management Trust
Rights and Records Institute
12 John Street
London WC1N 2EB

Tel: +44 171 831 4101 (switchboard)
       +44 171 242 2316 (direct line)
Fax: +44 171 831 7404/6303
E-mail:  pcain@irmt.btinternet.com
Web site:  http://www.irmt.org/

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