In a message dated 4/4/02 10:39:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, jwklaudi@prodigy.net writes: > I just thought that I would finally add my 'two cents' and suggest that > maybe you were taking the more difficult route in trying to obtain the > records that you're looking for. > > Hope this helps, > Joe > > Joe, thanks -- it does get confusing after a while! The NJ State Archives handles requests from May 1848 -- May 1878. They generally provide a good service without problems. (I did misread the part about her getting such a great response from that Dept. I was thinking it was from the Dept. of Health Services.) It's the Vital Records Dept, now under the NJ Dept. of Heath and Senior Services that has new rules. If you go online to Vitalchek they only process short timeline requests, i.e., birth certificate for passport, proof of marriage, etc. They no longer process requests for any family history or genealogy reasons. If you send in your written request for birth, death, or marriage certificates that occurred after May, 1878 they now require such exacting info. as to make it almost impossible to receive the requested document in some cases. Example: your gr-gr-grandmother died Dec. 1, 1879 in Gloucester Co, NJ. You want to order a copy of her Death Cert. to learn the names of her parents, cause of death, and possibly the cemetery she is buried in. This was a real easy request, right? You have her name, DOD, and place of death. But, the new rules invoked with the new Governor's taking office now state that you must list that ancestor's parents' names in order to get a birth certificate or death cert. This applies to all those certificates many of us have obtained over the years and so excitedly opened when that letter from Trenton arrived and we finally learned the names of our next generation back. This is what all the furor is over. Thanks to you and others for helping to clarify the issue. Joan