Is it just me, or do the rest of you find Arkansas bureaucracy a tad bizarre? My Mother wanted her mother's death certificate recently, so she sent her half-sister down to Little Rock to pick it up. When my Aunt got there the clerk told her that because my Grandmother had only been dead since 1979 she needed a blood-relative's okay to release the certificate (my Grandmother was not my Aunt's mother), so she offered my Mom's California phone number...which the clerk called. Now, how did the clerk know if the woman answering that phone was REALLY an immediate relative? The number was supplied by the person standing right there at the counter; if she was "up to no good" couldn't she have had a west coast accomplice helping her nefariously obtain this vital record? (Yes, that heavy sarcasm you just detected was intended.) After my Mother told the clerk to release the record she cheerfully made half a dozen copies for my Aunt -- no information was exchanged, no questions asked, to fully identify my mother as her mother's daughter... So exactly what did this bothersome bit of "protection" actually accomplish? Some Illinois counties have a similar "protection" for birth and death certificates, which a friend has circumvented by simply lying, with no proof needed to back up her assertion that she is an immediate family member. So why are they even bothering us with this silliness? As for the Dorcas Fudge situation, I believe Mrs. Fudge died within the year and her estate may not have completed probate yet, which may add a layer of annoyance to getting the certificate. M.L.Todd-Cornelius RAGNELL822@aol.com Visit the Oppelo Web Page at http://members.aol.com/Ragnell822/oppelo.html