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 But Pennsylvania has no index and continues the outdated and costly manual processing of each death certificate one at a time.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