The Utah death records are part of a major project underway to digitize and index the microfilmed records of the Genealogical Society of Utah/Family History Library. West Virginia death records were completed earlier. Only the vital records allowed by law will become available through this effort. Many microfilmed vital records have been pulled from the FHL shelves in the past as the states have restricted records. To read about the West Virginia records: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/vrrhandout.html To search: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx The indexing portion of the project is being completed by volunteers and several societies have signed up but individuals can do so as well. For more information on the indexing which only requires about a 30 minute commitment whenever you want to participate, see www.familysearchindexing.org Rebecca Christensen Paul Drake <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, Mary. Hope all is well with you and that you and your family are happy. Interesting that you ask, since I too asked myself that question upon reading the note. I do, however, very much suspect that Utah permits such vital statistics to be published after 50 years has passed. Since I have not read the statutes, I can not atall be sure. Still, notice that only the records through 1954 will be open to search. There is one other possibility that occurs to me; it may be that the counties are not required to forward their VS records to the State till 50 years after the events. Thanks, Dear, for jerking me out of the lethargy of winter; I will tell you what if anything learn further. Have a nice evening, and do stay in touch. :-) ----- Original Message ----- From: mary perkins To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 7:53 PM Subject: Re: [NCBERTIE] Fw: [DRAKE] Fwd: [ROOTS-L] More than 250,000 Utah Death Certificates Viewable Online Dear Paul, What's the likelihood that FamilySearch can or will do this for the rest of the states, or will state privacy laws prevent it in the more paranoid states! Thanks, Mary Parker Perkins