This passed on to me through another list. Thought you would all like to be aware. Stacey D. Government will limit access to birth, death records By Cynthia Beaudette of the Muscatine Journal MUSCATINE, Iowa - Area residents researching their ancestry may find more answers at the Musser Public Library than the Muscatine County Recorder's office beginning Jan. 1, 2007. That's when the federal government will ask county recorders across the nation to keep birth and death certificates under lock and key to help prevent identity theft. States will have the option to decline but not without penalty to its residents. One reason for the restriction is that many death certificates contain Social Security numbers, which could be used for identity theft. Muscatine County Recorder Cindy Gray said the new law will also require birth certificates to be renewed every five years to prevent people from fraudulently using the name of someone who died. The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors got the news from Gray during its regular Monday meeting. Gray said an official from the Iowa Department of Vital Records described the upcoming law during a recorders' summer class this month. Gray said they were told that access to birth and death records will be limited to family members who have a legal reason to see the records. After Jan. 1, 2007, the records will be off limits to the public and media. It's not clear yet whether other exceptions will be made as some details of the law have not been finalized. "Right now, anyone can come in and look at our records and write down what they see," said Gray. Residents of states that choose not to comply with this new law will not be able to use their birth certificates to obtain passports for travel to other countries, Gray said. After the law goes into effect, the records can be retrieved only by a county employee who has signed a statement of confidentiality. Gray said her office gets up to 20 requests a week for records. "We have a lot of people coming in for genealogy research," she said. "We give those to genealogists here in town." Gray said there are several area residents who come into the recorder's office to do research for a fee . The courthouse charges $15 for each copy of a certificate; $4 of that money stays with the county and the rest goes to the state of Iowa. When the new law goes into effect, private researchers will not have access to those records and this will create more work for the people in her office because staff will have to do the research. "There is no way, with the personnel we have now that we could do it," said Gray. "We'll have to hire someone." Gray said she doesn't know what such a position will entail until all the federal regulations come down. Gray's staff may be able to refer some people to the Musser Public Library. Sheila Chaudoin, assistant director at the library, said she doesn't have copies of birth and death records, but she helps people look up published obituaries and birth records indexed from the Muscatine Journal." "Few people need a death or birth certificate for genealogy purposes," said Chaudoin. In addition, Chaudoin said the library has a good relationship with area cemetery officials who can give her internment dates to help narrow down searches. Chaudoin, who is in charge of the library's local genealogy and history department, said the Muscatine County Genealogical Society has been helping the library staff index the obituaries and birth announcements. "We're getting close to putting a large amount of that information online so people throughout the country can find it," said Chaudoin. Gladys Mittman, a Muscatine resident who is not a professional genealogist but does considerable genealogy research for herself and others, says the library "does have a lot of information." However, the new law "will make it more difficult for genealogists. ... I'd hate to see that happen, especially with the very old records. I don't see any good reason for that." Gray and members of the Board of Supervisors said people who are concerned that the new law will overly restrict access to birth and death records may want to voice concerns to their state legislators.