Jim Beidler’s column in the Lebanon Daily News today will be of interest to anyone with Pennsylvania roots. In the column, titled “Death certificate effort needs some noise,” Jim says that “It’s time for genealogists in Pennsylvania to make some noise about access to death certificates.”
A group called “People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access” has been formed by Tim Gruber of Allentown. That group is spearheading the reintroduction of legislation to make for better access to Pennsylvania death records. However, In order for the reintroduced legislation (HB931) to go anywhere, the Pennsylvania legislators and the governor must hear from genealogists for the bill to become law.
It seems that there is no publicly available index of Pennsylvania deaths. As a “closed records state,” Pennsylvania’s law says that only certain people can make a request for a copy of a death certificate.
According to Beidler, “The lack of an index means that sometimes genealogists send for a certificate — including a $9 fee and waiting more than a month — only to find out that the person they were looking for isn’t the one on the certificate.”
“The bill that the group is backing allows for a “blackout” period of 50 years after the person’s death before access to a certificate is eased. The blackout period was inserted to address the privacy concerns.”
The People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access’ website is: http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access. This is a very good site – and it contains all kinds of helpful information. It’s the place to look if you’re interested in getting access to Pennsylvania records (and who isn’t?).
See Pennsylvania’s HB931 here or just click on the HB931 illustration above.
For more information, e-mail Gruber at timarg@rcn.com.
