GSP Supports Pennsylvania Vital Records Modernization Bills At their 18th June 2008 meeting, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania’s board of directors voted to support Vital Records Modernization Bills SB1378 and HB2543. The board authorized three letters be written to Governor Edward Rendell, state senator Vincent Fumo (District 1), and state representative (District 182) Babette Josephs, outlining our support for this initiative to computerize Pennsylvania’s vital records. Significant for genealogists everywhere, if this bill becomes law, birth records over 100 years old, and death records over 50 years old will be indexed and placed online for public search. Anyone wishing to learn more about these bills, and where to write if you wish to express your thoughts to Pennsylvania’s governor, or if you are a resident, to your Pennsylvania state representatives, can read more details at: http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access-SL.htm GSP’s letter to Governor Edward Rendell:                                                            30 June 2008 Governor Edward G. Rendell 225 Main Capitol Building Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120 Dear Governor Rendell, On behalf of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, I am asking you to support the Vital Records Modernization Bills SB 1378 and HB 2543. These bills call for computerizing Pennsylvania state vital records; for birth certificates over 100 years old and death certificates over 50 years old to become open records and to have them online; and establishing an online index (with minimal information) of death records over 2 years old. It is designed to modernize the Division of Vital Records, proactively help stop the identity theft of deceased persons and allow for vastly greater use of the oldest state birth and the older state death records by the public than would ever be possible under the current system. The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania feels it would help tourism and instill a greater pride in Pennsylvania heritage by making it considerably easier for people to find their Pennsylvania roots. Many of our members are out of state residents. Many visitors to our research library are also out of state residents who come to Philadelphia to learn more about their Pennsylvania ancestry. The attached list, Points to Consider, offers several benefits that underpin our support of this legislation. A number of other states have already implemented online access to vital records: Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Utah, and West Virginia. Numerous other states offer online access and, internationally, the vital records indexes for England, Wales (from 1837 to the present) and Scotland are readily available online. Massachusetts records to 1910 are available online. Louisiana, New Hampshire and Vermont are currently working toward online access to their vital records. The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania asks you to support these bills and help to enact them into law. Your help in this effort would be appreciated. Sincerely, Mark Frazier Lloyd President Vital Records Legislation Points To Consider: 1. The public would be much better served and genealogists, historians, professors, scientists and researchers would be able to utilize the information contained in these historic records in a way that is light years removed from the current limited access system. As indicated above, government itself would also be able to better utilize these records. 2. In the long run, having death records in a database would be a cost savings to the Commonwealth, eliminating the antiquated system of manually processing each request. 3. Because there is no comprehensive index for death records before 1960 (which is one of the reasons vital records forms ask for the place and date of death) the requests for the records from those years are probably the most time consuming requests and therefore the most costly requests for Vital Records to fill. By placing these old records into an online database it would relieve Vital Records of what are probably the most burdensome records to retrieve. Vital Records could then do what it needs to do by concentrating on newer business rather than acting as an archive for vital records. 4. There is no real reason the public should not have access to an index for all of Pennsylvania’s death certificates that includes only the names of the deceased and dates of death. Because the public would be able to find what they want so much more easily and with less guessing they would more likely send in more requests for death certificates. Requests for certificates less than 50 years old would still have all of the same restrictions and requirements already in place. 5. The public would be able to readily compile family medical histories which if done thoroughly would not only include parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents (a total of 30 in itself) but all of their siblings as well (which all told can easily exceed 100). 6. Being able to more easily find their Pennsylvania ancestors could entice out of state residents to visit Pennsylvania to discover more about their Pennsylvania heritage. 7. Other states have already made their death certificates available online. Why not Pennsylvania?