The following excerpt is from the March 2, 2013 edition of the News-Sentinel:
Allen County, Indiana: Genealogists and others searching for birth and death certificates will pay a little more after the Allen County Commissioners passed a vital records fee ordinance amendment Friday.
The fees have been adjusted because the Indiana Legislature increased the amount local health departments collect on behalf of the “Coroner’s Education Fund.” The fees are taken when death certificates are purchased. The next required increase per certificate occurs July 1. The new ordinance amendment in Allen County will take effect April 1.
Genealogist will be charged on a new sliding scale for death certificates. According to the new amendment, genealogical record search requests and non-certified birth/death records request “will be charged $2 for each non-certified copy as well as a blanket request fee of $20 for up to five searches, $35 for 6-10 searches and $50 for more than 10 name searches. The search fee is non refundable and must be paid prior to the start of the search for the requested records.”
Amounts for certified records requested will change as well; birth certificates will cost $11, a $1 increase. Death certificates will cost $11, also a $1increase, plus an additional $2 fee for the “Coroner’s Education Fund,” for a total charge of $13 per certificate.
Allen County Indiana is following in the footsteps of the other states on this continent.
The powers that be have caught that old disease GREED.
Genealogy is a very interesting indeavor- not only for pleasure but for conservation of HISTORY.
All who would seek to gain financially through fees-taxes ect. only tend to discourage the least able to pay from genealogical research.