People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access (PaHR-Access)
Genealogists Researchers
Family Historians
We are asking for your help in a grassroots effort to have Pennsylvania make its older state death certificates much more accessible and available online
There are millions and millions of people who are into genealogy but unless we all speak up we are allowing those who don't care about genealogy decide what records we may or may not have access to. But this will not happen on its own. We need you to personally let the State of Pennsylvania know you support this cause. The more of us that speak up the more likely we are to succeed. Otherwise we could be stuck with the same old existing archaic system indefinitely.
- Additional Ways You Can Help
- Progress Report & Organizational Endorsements
- Death Certificate Databases for Other States, Etc.
Discussion: (also see FAQ)
Currently, all death certificates recorded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1906 have restricted access regardless of how long ago a person died. Pennsylvania Division of Vital Records regulations require the requester to supply several pieces of information (including when and where the person died), spend $9 and wait 5 weeks or longer for each and every death certificate. A requester is also required to have a direct relationship to the deceased in order to obtain a copy of a death certificate. Often a requester doesn’t know if the person is related and needs the death certificate to find out. This is especially true when compiling family histories and trying to find the descendents of a common ancestor. The information a requester is expected to supply is quite often the very information a requester is looking for and the very reason for wanting a death certificate.
Many of us have experienced the frustration of either being told the death certificate could not be found or being sent the wrong certificate. Yes, a requester can pay $34 for an extended search of up to a ten year window with the charge of an additional $25 for each extension to that search window. To say the least this is quite costly to the requester and very time consuming for the Division of Vital Records. Sadly it doesn’t always result in a successful search and the fee is not refunded.
Also Pennsylvania doesn’t have a publicly
accessible index to see if the person even died in Pennsylvania. So it becomes
an expensive guessing game that doesn’t always result in finding a death
certificate even when the person actually died in Pennsylvania.
Because of the many burdensome and counterintuitive restrictions,
the public is not able to use these historic records as much as they should be
able to.
We understand the concerns about privacy. 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 online 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
1959 would be made accessible. As each year passes the next year in line would
be made accessible online to the public.
Twelve states have
already made their older death certificates available online, including Arizona,
Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina,
Texas, Utah and West Virginia. The
states of Louisiana, New Hampshire,
Vermont and Washington are in the process of doing so.
For approximately 30 other states there are extracted data and indexes of death
certificates online. However, Pennsylvania has
no
publicly accessible index and continues the outdated and costly manual processing of each
of its older death
certificates one at a time.
The Social Security Death Master File (with names, dates, places and numbers, and better known as the Social Security Death Index), which is updated weekly, is a death verification database used proactively to thwart identity theft and fraud. We understand government agencies, banks, insurance and credit card companies use it all the time to verify deaths and to stop the misuse of a deceased person's Social Security number. Expanding our proposed database to include all of Pennsylvania's 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. The Division of Vital Records would itself be able to fill requests using the expanded database.
Having a database of Pennsylvania's death certificates would actually be in accordance with Federal Law 108-458, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Social Security Administration and others, to award grants to States to assist them in computerizing their birth and death records, to develop the capability to match birth and death records within and among States, and to note the fact of death on birth certificates of deceased persons. This is done to stop someone from misusing the birth certificate of a deceased person.
Points To Consider: (also see FAQ)
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The public would be much better served and genealogists, historians, professors, scientists and researchers would be able to utilize the considerable amount of data contained in these numerous 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.
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There is no practical reason all of these records should be kept confidential indefinitely especially after a fairly long lapse of time. The year of death guideline addresses privacy concerns.
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In the long run, having death records in a database would be a cost savings to the Commonwealth and it gets away from the antiquated system of manually processing each request one at a time.
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Because there is no comprehensive index for death records before 1960 (which is one of the reasons the requester is required to supply 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. Vital Records could then do what it needs to do and concentrate on newer business rather than acting as an archive for old vital records.
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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.
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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 tolled can easily exceed 100). At $9 a piece that could be, to say the least, quite costly for a person to learn his or her complete family medical history. Here is a link to a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services webpage in which the U.S. Surgeon General talks about the importance of people learning about their family medical history: http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/
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Being able to more easily find their Pennsylvania Roots could spark an interest on the part of out of state residents and induce them to come to Pennsylvania to discover more about their Pennsylvania Heritage.
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Here is example of how much more these records would be used if they were open to the public: according to what we have learned from the Missouri State Archives, before setting up their online database, their state's Vital Records Division received approximately 5,000 requests per year for death certificates more than 50 years old. In the first 18 months after setting up their online database for these older death certificates they had 8.8 million searches for death certificates. We have no doubt if Pennsylvania had such a database it would be several times more popular and utilized.
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Other states have already made their death certificates available online. Why not Pennsylvania?
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. 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 both your state senator and your state representative in person, by letter, by phone, by fax or at the very least by email. Everyone, including out of state residents, should write, phone or at the very least email Governor Rendell 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 serious you are about wanting this the more serious the politicians will be in doing something. After all if you don't consider this cause important enough to do something why should they. Remaining silent will change nothing and we will be stuck with the same old restricted system indefinitely. This will only happen with your help. And yes each you can send more than one message or letter and as often as you wish.
Remember, if you live in Pennsylvania, to send Governor Rendell, your state representative and state senator each the same message. It is important that all three know of your support for this issue. You want to convince all three to support this cause. Writing to one is not the same as writing to all three as they do not generally share the information. If you live outside of Pennsylvania send a message to Governor Rendell.
Feel free to include in your letters your own personal dealings with the Pennsylvania Division of Vital Records and the frustrations you have with the current system. Letting them know why this important to you and how this personally affects you can be the most convincing part of your message.
If you send an email please include where you are from so your email will be taken more seriously by those who receive it. When you email us it helps us to know where you are from.
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, PA 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
SAMPLE LETTERS: Below are links to download sample letters. Be sure to include the correct address and name of the person you are sending it to and your return address (change the portions in brackets). We strongly encourage you to feel absolutely free to write your own letter or at least rewrite one of the sample letters in your own style and liking. The more personalized the message the better. However, any message sent is better than no message at all.
The fifth sample letter is for those who support the idea of a comprehensive Pennsylvania Death Certificate Database. The sixth letter is for those who support the idea of modernizing the Division of Vital Records (see the discussion about this under Frequently Asked Questions). Although the eighth sample letter is written specifically for out-of-state residents, out-of-state residents should choose whichever letter best reflects what they want to say. The last letter is written to specifically to support the Vital Records Modernization Bill HB 931 newly reintroduced into the Pennsylvania State House on our behalf (we are working on getting it reintroduced in the State Senate). For more information on this bill see This Week's News. This HB 931 letter is especially good for those who have already written a letter about this cause to Governor Rendell and their legislators before and would like to write again. And it never hurts to write more than once. It lets them know you are serious about wanting this to happen.
General Sample Letter (one-page)
General Sample Letter (two-page)
Comprehensive Death Database Sample Letter
Modernizing the Division of Vital Records Sample Letter
General Birth and Death Sample Letter
Out-of-state Resident Sample Letter
Support of HB931 Sample Letter
FLYER: Here is link to download the "Flyer". We are supplying this flyer to research and genealogy libraries and others as an easy hardcopy reference used to get their patrons interested in this cause. It also useful to hand out at meetings.
PETITION: Below is link to download the petition form. After you have filled the two-page form mail it to Governor Rendell (be sure to make a copy in case it is “lost” in the mail). Then start another. It would not hurt to send copies of the filled petitions to the local state senator and state representative, but we would like the Governor to receive the originals. If you would please email us to let us when you have mailed in each petition.
Petitions are a double edged sword. Politicians know almost anyone will sign one and so they don't take them as seriously as they would letters and personal visits. However they do get to see signatures they won't otherwise see since some people would never otherwise contact a state legislator or the Governor about this issue. There is no reason that everyone could not sign a petition and write or visit. Although many people are unwilling to write or visit they are usually willing to at least sign a petition. So please don’t be bashful about asking for signatures including from out-of-state residents. This isn’t voter registration, but they should be valid signatures.
These two petition forms are not for who can sign them but for where they are to be circulated. The out-of-state petition is written specifically for those who wish to start a petition for this cause in other states. However, the general petition form can be used anywhere. Either form can be signed by anyone regardless of where they live.
Targeting The Important Legislative Members: While it is very important that you write to the state legislators that represent your own district it wouldn't hurt if everyone, including out-of-state residents, were to send additional letters, emails and faxes to the leaders and officers of both houses and members of the state legislative committees that will deal with this issue. Getting their approval, especially the chairpersons, is especially important since any legislation must be approved by the respective committees before it can be debated and voted on by the entire legislature. Also legislative leaders are very instrumental in seeing bills reach the floor for a debate and a vote.
Pennsylvania Senate Leaders: Senate Leaders
Pennsylvania House Leaders: House Leaders
The members of the Senate Public Health & Welfare Committee can be found at: SPHWC
The members of the House Health & Human Services Committee can be found at: HHHSC
Getting Historical or Genealogical organizations Involved: We could use your help getting such organizations to support and endorse this cause. While a number of these organizations have been very helpful and have already endorsed this cause others have been slow in helping or less than cooperative. Hearing from people, especially their own members, may help to get them to take this cause more seriously.
For more on this see "How Can Historical And Genealogy Organizations Help" under Frequently Asked Questions
For a list of organizations that have already endorsed this cause go to the Progress Report
Getting other people Involved: We suggest you let as many other people you as you can know about this cause and encourage them to get involved even if it is to just to write a letter or send an email. Don't forget about relatives especially ones who live in Pennsylvania. Try to get your spouse's name and signature on any letters you send.
If you would like to do more please let us know: timarg@rcn.com.
PaHR-Access (People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access) is strictly a grassroots organization started in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania in August of 2007. It was first known as People for Better Access to Pennsylvania Historical Records (PBAPHR). The name change took place in early November 2007 to allow for a more pronounceable acronym (i.e. par-access).
We are ordinary people who
literally want to have better access to
Pennsylvania's historical records. Our main concern is the restricted state
death certificates. There are no membership dues merely the willingness to help
in this effort. PaHR-Access is not affiliated with any political, commercial,
institutional or religious organization whatsoever.
Website contents designed and composed by Tim Gruber with input from Dale Berger and others. If you have
any questions or concerns please contact our spokesperson:
Tim Gruber
timarg@rcn.com
We would enjoy hearing from you
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December 1, 2007
(updated July 1, 2009)