People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access (PaHR-Access)
Genealogists Researchers
Family Historians
We are asking for your help in a grassroots effort to make older Pennsylvania state death certificates available online
- Additional Ways You Can Help
- Death Certificate Databases for Other States
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
1958 would be made accessible. As each year passes the next year in line would
be made accessible online to the public.
Several states have already made their older death certificates
available online, including Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Utah and
West Virginia. The
states of Louisiana, New Hampshire and Vermont are in the process of doing so.
For numerous other states there are online indexes. 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 quarterly, is an online 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.
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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 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 effort you make in letting the Pennsylvania state government know what you want, the more seriously they will take it.
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 how this personally affects you can be the most convincing part of your message.
Let us know what responses you receive to your messages and from whom you receive them from. Even if your legislator has already endorsed this cause it is still a good idea to write to him or her so they can show the support they have from their constituents for this cause. For a list click on the Progress Report link at the top of the page.
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
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 red). 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 original and individualized the message the better. 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 last 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.
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
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.
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.
HANDOUT: Here is the link to download the “Handout”. This two-page handout contains only the information the
legislators need to see and is basically a reflection of the information on this
webpage. It
gives them something to refer to so they don’t have to try to remember
everything.
Targeting The Important Legislative Committee 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 to members of the state legislative committees that will deal with this issue. Getting their approval 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.
The members of the Senate Public Health & Welfare Committee can be found at:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/senators_sc.cfm#29
The members of the House Health & Human Services Committee can be found at:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/member_information/representatives_sc.cfm#20
Getting Your Historical or
Genealogy Society 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 their members or people who live in the area may help to get
them to take this cause more seriously.
For more on this see "How Can Historical And Genealogy Organizations Help" on the Frequently Asked Questions page:
http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access-FAQ.htm
For a list of organizations that have already endorsed this cause go to the Progress Report: http://users.rcn.com/timarg/Pahr-Access-ProgressReport.htm
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.
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 merely people who want to literally 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 written by Tim Gruber with input from Dale Berger. If you have
any questions or concerns please contact our spokesperson:
Tim Gruber
timarg@rcn.com
We would enjoy hearing from you
December 1, 2007
(updated April 26, 2008)