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Posts Tagged ‘Birth And Death’

Birth and death certificates public record?

October 25th, 2011 1 comment

I have heard that birth and death certificates are public record yet its so darn hard to find them and when ya do you have to pay to see them. I dont want a copy sent to me i just want to see them. My boyfriend was in jail and his mother commited suicide. We have nol idea where she is buried or even the day she died. It must be very hard on him not knowing where his mothers body was laid to rest. I want to ask him about it but i know he is hurt over the whole thing. So does anyone know where i can find public records on a persons death online?

You must write in your request to the local state requesting birth and death certificates.

a family member of hers might be able to access this certificate but you’re not authorized.

government owned websites contain instructions on how to access these records. learn more:
http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/lkcpk/til_how_to_access_birth_and_death_certificates/

Birth Certificate, Death Certificate?

September 29th, 2011 4 comments

I want to view someone’s birth and death certificates and records how do I do this, I would like to do it in person not online, where would I go and will they allow you to view them if this person died as a minor? Also can you make a copy of it? And would they even let me see them if I’m only 17? I want to see these because this person is important in my life and I never got to meet him because he died a week after I was born. This is in California, Sonoma County. Thank you such for your answers.

The Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor’s office is the place to go, provided you are one of the legally authorized relationships to this person. Being a minor you may need a parent or other authorized person to go with you. The link gives the address, fees, authorized relationships and all pertinent details. http://www.sonoma-county.org/clerk/html_documents/bdmcerts/frameset_bdmcerts.htm

They will not allow you to look through the records to locate his, nor will you be looking at the original. You will need to order the copy and pay the copy fee, but this can be done in person at the office.

Where can I search for death records for FREE?

July 10th, 2011 6 comments

I have gone to several different sites but they all end up asking for money. I thought death records were public records and anyone should be able to search for a loved one but I’m hitting dead ends everywhere.

I put some links below. I wanted to deal with a common misconception first.

> I thought death records were public records

They are, and if you send the name and death date to the appropriate county courthouse, plus a check, which may be as little as $5 or as much as $35, you can get a copy. There isn’t any law that says a state or county has to spend tax money on a web site to make death records available for free.

By contrast, some records are NOT public; sealed adoptions records, and agreements hashed out between two parties in a civil lawsuit, for instance. You cannot get them no matter how much you pay.

Below:

These are all free. Some have ads at the top, which sometimes ask for a name and take you to a pay site, so be careful to distinguish between the advertisement and the input form. An index will have name, date and maybe something else; death records – 500 KB jpg’s of death certificates – are rare. Some of these say "Records" – I copied the page title – but are really indexes.

Social Security Death Index
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
1960ish – now; almost 90 million entries in November 2010.

Find-a-Grave
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi
53 million entries in November 2010, mostly the USA. Entries range; they may have one or more of:
Exact birth and death dates
A short biography/obituary
Links to the person’s parents’ graves and/or and children’s graves
Picture(s) of the person
The best ones have all of the above; the worst ones have just a name and year of death; "J. Smith, b. ????, d. 1912".

Arizona genealogy
http://genealogy.az.gov/
Births 1855 – 1934; deaths 1844 – 1959. Real records, not an index. Number of entries not given.

California Death index
http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi
9,366,786 entries from 1940 – 1997

Kentucky Death Records
(Y!A only allows 10 links per answer, so I cheated. Change the "/ca/" in the URL for the California Death index to "/ky/" to get Kentucky.)
2,921,383 entries from 1911 – 2000

Maine Death Records
Change the "/ca/" in the URL for the California Death index to "/me/" to get Maine.)
401,960 entries from 1960 – 1997

Missouri Digital Archives
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/
Real records; Year range 1910 – "50 years ago", so the upper limit changes by one every year. Number of entries not stated, but it too would grow over time. Not all counties are here.

Texas Death Records
Change the "/ca/" in the URL for the California Death index to "/tx".)
3,963,456 entries from 1964 – 1998

West Virginia Birth, Death and Marriage records
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx
Real records; number of entries not stated. Years vary by county. Here are the first five counties, to give you a feel for it:

Barbour: 1853 – 1859, 1861 – 1969
Berkeley: 1871, 1875 – 1906, 1917 – 1970
Boone: 1865 – 1873, 1877 – 1883, 1885 – 1968
Braxton: 1853 – 1861, 1865, 1867 – 1969
Brooke: 1853 – 1860, 1862, 1865, 1867 – 1868, 1874 – 1880, 1885 – 1970

Birth and Death records in NYC?

April 25th, 2011 1 comment

I am looking for a 1885-6 New York birth record for Joseph M Boyle. Michael J and Margaret Boyle,(his parents) were both born in Ireland. Also, possibly a death record, sometime after 1911 and before 1930 for Joseph M Boyle. His wife was named Mable Hurley and he had a daughter,Dorothy(1908),and a son,Joseph T (1911)Any help will be appreciated immensly.
Thanks!

Go to stevemorse.org and look in the Births, deaths….. folder. There are a number of NYC indexes there for birth and deaths. Read the FAQ. You should be able to narrow the time span for those events and get the certificate numbers and who to get them from.

how do i look and find public records free on marriage and death certifcates?

March 24th, 2011 1 comment

in the missouri database

The website is http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/ ; http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/birthdeath/
and you select Missouri Birth and Death Records, pre 1910 or Missouri Death Certificate, 1910-1958 records and then you would just type in the name you are looking for…and you should also try spelling variations.

If you can’t find what you are looking for post it here and someone will see if they can find it…everything may not be there.

Are there any FREE public access death records?

March 21st, 2011 3 comments

My great grandfather died a few years back, and i never really had the chance to get to know him. he traveled the country with his wife, until he died. i could ask her, but she is old, and i dont want to make her cry, so im using any other resource i can to try to find out more about my family history

You can search the Social Security Death Index, which is not the same as a certificate at:
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ or http://www.familysearch.org/ENG/search/frameset_search.asp once you have located it in the index you would have a better idea of where to either order the death certificate or where to search for it online.

There are other Death Indexes that you can search, most notably the California Death Index 1940-1997 at http://www.deathindexes.com/california/i… , which is the (free version) at Rootsweb.

A Genealogy Guide for Finding Obituaries, Cemetery Burials and Death Records for the state of California can be found at http://www.deathindexes.com/california/i… free and some fee.

Texas and Ohio death certificates are available on FamilySearch.org on their pilot site at: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsear…. Also, a new beta site on FamilySearch.org has more records at: http://fsbeta.familysearch.org/s/collection/list several states were added.

There are a few websites that have some vital records at no charge. For example, the state of Missouri has death certificates for the years 1910-1958 on their website at: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources… A few pre 1910 birth and death certificates are also available on the site but all of their records have not been transcribed yet.

There are many other indexes and some that have some actual death certificates online but knowing the time period and state would go a long way toward helping someone locate them. However, there is no centralized location where all death records/certificates that are online can be searched.

As for your great grandfather, the only thing that you will be able to find out about him from these records will be when and possibly how he died and who his family was; you won’t be able to find out what kind of person he was or any interesting stories about his life. Maybe you great grandmother would like to talk about him and tell you some of his stories or about their travels. Try an ice-breaker like asking to see travel photos and see what happens…she might surprise you.

are birth and death certificate’s public record in the state of Mississippi?

March 14th, 2011 2 comments

Can anyone get a copy of a birth/death certificate?

Yes and yes. Some states actually have websites you can get these from. Check the website for the Recorder for the county in which the birth/death occurred.

The Life and Death of Public Records

March 14th, 2011 3 comments

The Life and Death of Public Records
Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

 

In These Times has obtained a draft of the proposed regulations now causing widespread concern among state officials. It reveals plans to create a vast database of vital records to be centralized in Washington and details measures that states must implement — and pay millions for — before next year’s scheduled implementation.

 

The draft lays out how some 60,000 already strapped town and county offices must keep the birth and death records under lock and key and report all document requests to Washington. Individuals who show up in person will still be able to obtain their own birth certificates and, in some cases, the birth and death records of an immediate relative, and “legitimate” research institutions may be able to access files. But reporters and activists won’t be allowed to fish through records, many family members looking for genetic clues will be out of luck, and people wanting to trace adoptions will dead-end. If you are homeless and need your own birth certificate, forget it: no address, no service.

 

Consider the public health implications. A few years back, a doctor in a tiny Vermont town noticed that two patients who lived on the same hill had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hearing rumors of more cases of the relatively rare and always fatal disease, the doctor notified the health department. Citing lack of resources, it declined to investigate. The doc then told a reporter, who searched the death certificates filed in the town office only to find that ALS had already killed five of the town’s 1,300 residents. It was statistically possible, but unlikely, that this 10-times-higher-than-normal incidence was simply chance. Since no one knows what causes ALS, clusters like this one, once revealed, help epidemiologists assess risk factors, warn doctors to watch for symptoms,and alert neighbors and activists.

 

Activists in Colorado already know what it is like when states bar access to vital records. For years, they fought the Cotter Corp., claiming that its uranium mining operations were killing residents and workers. Unwilling to rely on the health department, which they claimed had a “cozy” relationship with the polluters, the activists tried to access death records, only to be told that it was illegal in this closed-records state. An editorial in Colorado’s Longmont Daily Times-Call lamented, “If there’s a situation that makes the case for why death certificates should be available to the public, it is th[is] Superfund area.”

 

Some of state officials around the country are questioning whether the new regulations themselves illegally tread on states’ rights. But the feds have been coy. Richard McCoy, public health statistic chief in Vermont, one of the nation’s 14 open-records states, says, “No state is mandated to meet the regs. However, if they don’t, then residents of that state will not be able to access any federal services, including social security and passports. States have no choice.”

 

But while the public loses access to records, the federal government gains a gargantuan national database easily cross-referenced in the name of national security. The feds’ claim that increased security will deter identity theft and terrorism is facile. Wholesale corporate data gathering is the major nexis of identity theft. As for terrorism, all the 9/11 perpetrators had valid identification.

 

Meanwhile, the quiet clampdown on vital records is part of a growing consolidation of information at the federal level. “That information will dovetail with the Real ID Act of 2005,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Real ID cards are the other shoe that is scheduled to drop in three years.” That act, signed into law last May, establishes national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards, and centralizes the information into a database.

 

Aside from public health and privacy concerns, closing vital records incurs a steep intangible cost: It undermines community in places where that healthy ethos still survives. In small town America, the local clerk’s office is a sociable place where government wears the face of your neighbor. Each year, Vermont’s 246 towns distribute their vital statistics to all residents. “It’s the first place everybody goes in the Town Report,” says state archivist Gregory Sanford. “Who was born, who died, who got married, who had a baby and wasn’t married.”

 

This may not be the most dramatic danger to democracy, but it is one of the Bush administration’s many quiet, incremental assaults on the health of America’s body politic. And it may end up listed on the death certificate for open society.

 

more detail : http://RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

The Life and Death of Public Records

March 14th, 2011 3 comments

The Life and Death of Public Records
Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth and death certificates for 70 to 100 years. In much of the country, these records have long been invaluable tools for activists, lawyers and reporters to uncover patterns of illness and pollution that officials miss or ignore.

 

In These Times has obtained a draft of the proposed regulations now causing widespread concern among state officials. It reveals plans to create a vast database of vital records to be centralized in Washington and details measures that states must implement — and pay millions for — before next year’s scheduled implementation.

 

The draft lays out how some 60,000 already strapped town and county offices must keep the birth and death records under lock and key and report all document requests to Washington. Individuals who show up in person will still be able to obtain their own birth certificates and, in some cases, the birth and death records of an immediate relative, and “legitimate” research institutions may be able to access files. But reporters and activists won’t be allowed to fish through records, many family members looking for genetic clues will be out of luck, and people wanting to trace adoptions will dead-end. If you are homeless and need your own birth certificate, forget it: no address, no service.

 

Consider the public health implications. A few years back, a doctor in a tiny Vermont town noticed that two patients who lived on the same hill had ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hearing rumors of more cases of the relatively rare and always fatal disease, the doctor notified the health department. Citing lack of resources, it declined to investigate. The doc then told a reporter, who searched the death certificates filed in the town office only to find that ALS had already killed five of the town’s 1,300 residents. It was statistically possible, but unlikely, that this 10-times-higher-than-normal incidence was simply chance. Since no one knows what causes ALS, clusters like this one, once revealed, help epidemiologists assess risk factors, warn doctors to watch for symptoms,and alert neighbors and activists.

 

Activists in Colorado already know what it is like when states bar access to vital records. For years, they fought the Cotter Corp., claiming that its uranium mining operations were killing residents and workers. Unwilling to rely on the health department, which they claimed had a “cozy” relationship with the polluters, the activists tried to access death records, only to be told that it was illegal in this closed-records state. An editorial in Colorado’s Longmont Daily Times-Call lamented, “If there’s a situation that makes the case for why death certificates should be available to the public, it is th[is] Superfund area.”

 

Some of state officials around the country are questioning whether the new regulations themselves illegally tread on states’ rights. But the feds have been coy. Richard McCoy, public health statistic chief in Vermont, one of the nation’s 14 open-records states, says, “No state is mandated to meet the regs. However, if they don’t, then residents of that state will not be able to access any federal services, including social security and passports. States have no choice.”

 

But while the public loses access to records, the federal government gains a gargantuan national database easily cross-referenced in the name of national security. The feds’ claim that increased security will deter identity theft and terrorism is facile. Wholesale corporate data gathering is the major nexis of identity theft. As for terrorism, all the 9/11 perpetrators had valid identification.

 

Meanwhile, the quiet clampdown on vital records is part of a growing consolidation of information at the federal level. “That information will dovetail with the Real ID Act of 2005,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Real ID cards are the other shoe that is scheduled to drop in three years.” That act, signed into law last May, establishes national standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards, and centralizes the information into a database.

 

Aside from public health and privacy concerns, closing vital records incurs a steep intangible cost: It undermines community in places where that healthy ethos still survives. In small town America, the local clerk’s office is a sociable place where government wears the face of your neighbor. Each year, Vermont’s 246 towns distribute their vital statistics to all residents. “It’s the first place everybody goes in the Town Report,” says state archivist Gregory Sanford. “Who was born, who died, who got married, who had a baby and wasn’t married.”

 

This may not be the most dramatic danger to democracy, but it is one of the Bush administration’s many quiet, incremental assaults on the health of America’s body politic. And it may end up listed on the death certificate for open society.

 

more detail : http://RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com

Free genealogy information?

May 31st, 2010 1 comment

Where can I find Texas birth records from 1900-present (targeting the 70s on, really) for free online. Before Roots Web was bought out, they listed birth information for free.

Also, can anyone find Louisiana birth and death records for free online (60s, on?).

Free? not that I know .. ancestry has Tx birth index but not free.
I really kind of scratch my head on them having that much. Birth records are particularly vulnerable to id theft and/or privacy laws, so it is curious that they would have those.
Same for Louisiana, but I don’t think ancestry has those.
All states legally restrict birth records to those who have immediate valid interest (the person or parents of a child).