Digital vs History
The digital economy continues to erode the old way of doing things but it has not reached every corner of the world, not even in the United States. For heritage lineage groups, where you have to prove your ancestry, they are still stuck 50 years in the past.
Yes, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org has made it easier than ever to prove who your ancestors are. You would expect such organizations to assist lineage organizations but there is a drop off point. The lineage organizations application process is still stuck in the paper and fax age, and often run by people who have one foot in the grave or close to it. The result is a long, expensive, byzantine process.
Oh, wait! What is a fax machine, you ask? This was a device which scanned your piece of paper and transmitted the information across a phone wire to another fax machine which would print out the paper you had scanned. This was a way to quickly share printed information to other people far away. Yet, a fax machine is often too advance for a lineage organization and you will find yourself using the standard US Postal Service.
Anyways, back to the process of applying for a lineage organization.
What should be a simple process of submitting digital verifiable documents simply does not exist for most lineage organizations. One organization flat out told me: “I decline receipt of documents by dropbox or other services due to being burned by viruses and inappropriate content, and do not review ancestry family trees or shoeboxes as they are not applications. Please do not cram my email inbox with large files of proof documents.” God forbid I commit the sacrilege of using FindAGrave.com! My response was not to join. I wonder if they still use a rotary phone.
Another organization I attempted to join, failed repeatedly to make contact with me which resulted in me dismissing linage groups as a scam. Two decades later, I joined another lineage group where they also kindly assisted me joining another membership group. But I see huge problems with the processes. You surrender your birth certificate, pay hundreds of dollars, and are left waiting months for approval like a suspect waiting a jury trial.
You can imagine what happens when an applicant’s application is accepted and are told. They happily come into a meeting to accept their letter of approval, determine the process was too creepy, and do not come back.
There are many calling for reform but they simply are not organized at all and such reformers face stiff challenges from the lineage organizations themselves. But with the digital world knocking on the door, the time for reform is approaching. It is just a matter of time.