Requesting Genealogists/Researchers/Historians Lobbying Participation


People For Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access  (PaHR-Access)


We are asking for your help in a grassroots lobbying effort to make older
 Pennsylvania state death certificates available on-line. Currently, all death
 certificates recorded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1906 have
 restricted access regardless of how long ago a person died. A requester is
 required to supply when and where the person died, spend $9 and wait 5 weeks
 or longer for each and every death certificate. And many of us have
 experienced the frustration of either being told the death certificate
 couldn’t be found or being sent the wrong certificate. Because of the many
 burdensome restrictions, the public is not able to use these historic records
 as much as they should be able to.


Several states have already made their older death certificates available on-
line, including Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Utah and West Virginia.
 Numerous other states have on-line indexes. But Pennsylvania has no index and
 continues the outdated and costly manual processing of each death certificate
 one at a time.
 

We understand the concerns about privacy and identity theft. However, there is
 no practical reason to keep all of these records restricted indefinitely.
 Therefore, our basic proposal is that the death certificates that would be
 accessible on-line by the public would have to be at least 50 years old.
 Currently that would mean only the death certificates of persons who died
 before 1957 would be made accessible. As each year passes the next year in
 line would be made accessible on-line to the public.
 

The Social Security Death Master File (with names, dates, places and numbers),
 which is updated quarterly, is an identity verification database used to
 thwart identity theft and fraud. Expanding our proposed database to include
 all death records (but with the same limited public access as outlined above)
 could be used in a similar manner by law enforcement and government agencies
 including the Division of Vital Records.
 

We are asking you to contact certain Pennsylvania state officials, preferably
 in writing or in person since it will have the most impact, but at least by
 phone or email. As we understand it the Pennsylvania State Legislature would
 have to change the law. The Governor would have to approve any change and the
 Pennsylvania Department of Health would have to implement any change. If you
 live in Pennsylvania please contact your state senator and your state
 representative in person, by letter, by phone or at the very least by email.
 Everyone, including out of state residents, should write, phone or at the
 very least email the Governor and even the Division of Vital Records.
 Naturally the more letters and other forms of contact that are made and the
 more people involved the better. The more effort you make in letting the
 Pennsylvania state government know what you want, the more seriously they will take it.


Here is an example of what our goal is. This one is for the State of West
 Virginia:


http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx  or

(www.wvculture.org) (Archives and History) (Births, Deaths, and Marriages)
 (Deaths)



 
Contact information for Pennsylvania State Legislators can be found at:

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/find.cfm  or

(www.legis.state.pa.us) (Find Members By)
 

Contact information for Governor Edward G. Rendell:

 Governor Edward G. Rendell's Office

225 Main Capitol Building

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120


Telephone 717) 787-2500

Facsimile: 717-772-8284


Email link: http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Governor/govmail.html


Contact information for Pennsylvania Vital Records Division can be found at:

 http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/health/cwp/view.asp?
a=168&q=202359#MailingAddress
 
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