Speak out on records access
It’s starting again.
Every so often, records access — particularly access to vital records — goes on the chopping block.
And access to these critical records for family history — including medical family history — is being threatened right now, in New York.
New York law has always been tough for records access. But a new proposal from the Governor there, tucked into the proposed state budget, would have devastating effects on access to vital records — birth, marriage and death records — in the Empire State.
In short, the proposal would do three things:
• Increase fees substantially for getting a birth or death certificate and impose a per-hour search fee for retrieving and processing a genealogical records request;
• Eliminate the requirement that the state Department of Health maintain indexes of birth and death records; and
• Give discretion to the state Health Commissioner to decide when and how to release genealogical records — including increasing the closure periods for birth records from 75 years to 125 years, for death records from 50 years to 75 years and for marriage records from 50 years to 100 years.
Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh!!
Our only chance to defeat this is to speak up — all of us, in and out of New York, with a collective voice. There’s a public hearing on this proposal on February 11, so time’s a’wastin’!!
You can read the call to action from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) here. It has specific suggestions about what you might say, and specific directions on how to get it submitted.
Speak up — speak out — now for records access in New York!
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Call to action: New York!,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/ : posted 28 Jan 2025).
