American Ancestors is offering free access to their 1.4 billion names covering 18 countries from 12 November 12:00AM ET to 19 November 11:59 PM ET. You will be required to register for a guest account in order to have access.  If you try to access the database before or after the time of the free offer, you will be  limited in which data you will have access to unless you pay for a subscription.

Go to:  https://www.americanancestors.org/free-billion

You will need to create a guest account to see the images.

Click on sign up for account: https://www.americanancestors.org/membership/guest-users

The information requested is email address; password; first and last name. No credit card information is required.

You can also download a free guide to getting started on your genealogy from this site as the window pops up middle of page. When you click on download button it asks for your email address and it will be sent to your email inbox.

To browse the database which is far more than New England records see:

https://www.americanancestors.org/browse-database

There is a free video in YouTube on how to search  the indexes on American Ancestors.org which is viewable at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsFL2vliTGA&feature=youtu.be

I have no affiliation with American Ancestors and am posting this solely for the information of the reader.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

Earlier this week I posted about a Florida judge granting a warrant to law enforcement to search GEDmatch’s full database. The court basically overruled the public DNA company’s policy on privacy. Since then both Ancestry and 23andMe—both private DNA testing companies,  have issued statements.

Ancestry

Ancestry believes GEDmatch could have done more to protect the privacy of its users by challenging the warrant in court or at least pushing back on the warrant.  Ancestry has emphasized that their customer’s privacy and being good stewards of their data is their highest priority. They also have a transparency report that outlines law enforcement requests for member data. They say they received no valid requests for information related to genetic information. To read their statement in full including the Coalition for Genetic Data Protection’s comments, of which Ancestry is a member see:

https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2019/11/08/your-privacy-is-our-top-priority/

23andMe

23andme also issued a statement commenting on how troubling they find GEDmatch’s lack of challenging the warrant. They question as a private database whether the Florida court’s warrant impacts them. 23andMe also has a transparency report and they have received 10 requests out of their 10 million customers and successfully challenged each one. They are also a member of the Coalition for Genetic Data Protection.

Their statement may be found at: https://blog.23andme.com/news/our-stance-on-protecting-customers-data/

I have no affiliation with either Ancestry or 23andMe ad am reporting on this solely for the information of the reader.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

As I mentioned in yesterday’s posting about Ancestry.com and their Veterans Day free access offer, I did not know at the time what the Ancestry Canada or Ancestry UK sites would be offering for their Remembrance Day. They too are offering free access, but you have to log into each one individually to access the free records.

Canada

Ancestry is offering free access to all Canadian Military Records from 8 November 2019 to 11 November 2019 11:59 p.m. ET

Please use the time converter to check the time in your time zone; http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc

You must register with your name, email address and password.  Go to:  https://www.ancestry.ca/cs/remembrance-day

Fill out the form with the person you are searching with their name and location and birth year if you have it.  When the results page comes up select the record for your person.  Then select the record. If you want to save the record to your computer click on the green save box in the  upper right.  If you want to print or download click on the tools icon on the right of the screen.

to see the list of collections available for free during this promotion go to:

https://www.ancestry.ca/search/categories/ca_military/

After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collection using a paid Ancestry membership. If you try to access any records not included in the free offer you will be invited to subscribe.

United Kingdom

Ancestry is offering free access to all United Kingdom Military Records (World War l and World War ll) from 8 November 2019 to 11 November 2019 11:59 p.m. ET

Please use the time converter to check the time in your time zone: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc

You must register with your name, email address and password. You must register separately from your US or Canadian subscription.

to see the records included in the free access to military records go to:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/categories/uk_wartime_collections/  On the top of the page fill out the form with the person you are searching with their name and location and birth year if you have it.  When the results page comes up select the record for your person.  Then select the record. If you want to save the record to your computer click on the green save box in the  upper right.  If you want to print or download click on the tools icon on the right of the screen.

After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collection using a paid Ancestry membership. If you try to access any records not included in the free offer you will be invited to subscribe.

I have no affiliation with Ancestry and am posting this solely for the information of the reader.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

The United Kingdom’s General Register Office (GRO) has added the index of deaths from 1984 to 2019. These cover England and Wales records only.

It is recommended that you go to the FAQs before ordering:

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/faq.asp#GROIndexReferences

This also includes the pricing and explains the GRO indexing reference numbers.

Go to:

https://www.gro.gov.uk. Click on order records online.  You must be registered with email address and password to proceed. The next window asks what you want to do  and click on the GRO Indexes. That will open asking if you want birth or death indexes and then fill out the form for whom you are looking for.

Note: birth records are available only through 1918 due to the 100 privacy requirement.

Thank you to Jeanette Rosenberg, JGS United Kingdom for informing us about the death index update.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

In a recent decision, the Quebec Court of Appeals declared the 2017 Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (the "Act"), adopted by the federal Parliament and which came into force on May 4, 2017, to be ultra vires because of its encroachment on the jurisdiction of provincial legislatures.  (Ultra Vires- beyond one's legal power or authority. (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/ultra_vires).  This is being appealed to Canada’s Supreme Court by the Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness. The Supreme Court will  have to decide on the constitutional validity of a law under the Constitution's Division of powers, and incidentally, on which level of government is entitled to legislate on protection against genetic discrimination for Canadians.  The Court heard the case on October 4^th, a ruling is not expected until sometime in 2020.

The question put before the Court was:

"Is the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act enacted by sections 1 to 7 of the Act to prohibit and prevent genetic discrimination, (S.C. 2017, c. 3) ultra vires to the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Canada over criminal law under paragraph 91 (27) of the Constitution Act, 1867?"

They then had to analyze the sections of the Act.  The Court found that the main purpose of the Act was not to address a criminal law object but rather to protect and to promote health by fostering the access by Canadians to genetic tests for medical purposes

The Quebec Court opined that the main purpose of the Act was to promote the health of Canadians by encouraging access to genetic tests for medical purposes. Therefore,  the Act sought to regulate matters falling under the province's jurisdiction, namely genetic discrimination in employment and insurance contracts (civil and property rights), rather than criminal law, which would fall under federal jurisdiction. This is the crux of the court case: whether the Act is a valid exercise of Parliament’s criminal law power or does the aw really regulate the insurance industry an area that falls under provincial jurisdiction.

The case is also a test of Parliament’s criminal law power. The genetic characteristics as a ground for discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Canada Labor Code. Which were unaffected by the Quebec decision.

Of course privacy is a key element as one’s genetic makeup is something that should only be used with one’s permission.

History

Prior to the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act Canada did not have legislation in force that addressed genetic discrimination and particular protection of the human genome.  The purpose of the legislation was to prohibit and prevent genetic discrimination in requiring any individual from undergoing genetic testing or disclosing genetic test results under certain circumstances.  The Act also amended the Canada Labor Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act to address discrimination, particularly in the areas of insurance and labor relations, by adding the terms "genetic characteristics".

The Act went forward by the federal parliament although there was concern at the time due to the Constitution’s division of powers.  The issue is if the regulation of contracts and provision of goods and services in the Constitution is being violated. Following its adoption, it did not take long for the Government of Québec to issue a decree in order to ask the Court of Appeal to verify the constitutional validity of the law, on the grounds that the Act encroaches on the jurisdiction of provincial legislatures to regulate private law.  Interestingly, for the first time the government of Canada has intervened to challenge the constitutionality of a bill passed by Parliament,  the Attorney of Canada rather than supporting the constitutionality of a federal law joined the Quebec Attorney General to defend Quebec’s ruling on jurisdictional grounds.

To read more see:

https://www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articles/law/hot-topics-in-law/2019/genetic-privacy-legislation-goes-to-the-scc

and

https://ipolitics.ca/2019/10/10/genetic-non-discrimination-bill-passed-by-parliament-but-challenged-by-government-at-top-court/

There may be legislation introduced in the provinces to protect their citizens while this is being reviewed by the Supreme Court. While I heard about a campaign for such legislation in the Province of Ontario, I was not able at this time to find the bill.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee