Obermayer’s Transparency Law Team Argues Landmark Case on Ownership of Pennsylvania’s Digitized Historical Records

Obermayer’s Transparency Law and Public Data Practice was featured in a Spotlight PA article, “Who owns Pa.’s digitized history? We’re a step closer to an answer,” published on February 6, 2026. Two days earlier, on February 4, 2026, Obermayer attorneys Terry Mutchler and Erika Silverbreit argued before Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court on behalf of their client, Reclaim the Records, in a case that will determine who owns Pennsylvania’s digitized historical records.

The case originated with a 2022 public records request filed by Alec Ferretti, a director at Reclaim the Records, seeking access to historical documents digitized by Ancestry under a 2008 agreement with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC).

According to the agreement, the documents include birth and death certificates, veterans’ burial cards, records of enslaved people, naturalization forms, as well as Civil War border claims and muster rolls. Those records would then be free to Pennsylvania residents who create user profiles with Ancestry, which requires a paid subscription to access the breadth of its records. An Ancestry lawyer said on Wednesday that it has about 18 million digitized images in total.

Since Ferretti is a New York state resident, he requested the information directly from PHMC. He also asked for the metadata for the digitized records, as well as any index lists Ancestry created during that work.

PHMC denied the request, saying it didn’t have any responsive records in its possession. Ferretti appealed, arguing that the state agency was required to obtain them from Ancestry under a section of Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law that allows public access to documents held by a private contractor hired to perform a governmental function on behalf of a government agency.

Read the full article here.

The story was also covered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.