Doublespeak- evasive, ambiguous language primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable
I can't imagine I'm the only totally frustrated researcher who has waited in vain for more images of the War of 1812 Pension Applications to appear on Fold3. It has literally been years since the last batch was released. You may recall the very successful campaign which raised $500,000 to pay for the digitizing and posting of the files, which was to be done in conjunction with the National Archives which holds the records and the Federation of Genealogical Societies. Things were moving along, but then everything ground to a halt with letter M. That's it, up to letter M then nothing. And as luck would have it, my ancestor's name begins with the letter V.
The FGS Facebook page about the project hasn't been updated in nearly a year and the Fold3 site is equally mum. When I inquired about the delay a year ago, this was the response--"there are persistent security issues and process control challenges with NARA’s internal operations"-- huh? Today I tried again to get an answer to what was happening and got this reply-- "NARA has recently experienced some challenges managing their numerous work flows and processes...". Did they realize how inadequate the first explanation was and revise it with a different but equally annoying excuse? All I'd like to know is what is the problem? And why the reticence to share that information with the individuals paying for the project? It's much easier to be patient if one understands what is happening, (or not happening in this case), and why.
The person who responded to my query did volunteer that an announcement concerning the project is expected from the FGS on August first. After all the secrecy, I'm hoping this means something has changed and the project will resume, M is an awfully long way from V.
Amen
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