I wonder if it gets even murkier with the public sale of private records.

A couple years ago, I was distressed to see a large record book from a local
church offered on ebay. It dated from around 1818 or so (if memory serves).
I contacted the seller asking about how he came into possession of it and
received a vague, defensive response, except he did claim to have a bill of
sale from an auction for it.

I contacted the local historical society and the church (which was unaware
it was missing and had NOT voluntarily released it) and the church ended up
buying it back.  I'm unclear as to whether they could have pursued a legal
process or not. They seemed to feel this was the easiest way to retrieve it.

Marianne Briggs