In a message dated 4/21/2006 1:43:22 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, clcrawford@fuse.net writes: Hello List I am hoping someone in a legal capacity can help me with a question on Nursing Home Records in Butler County. Several yeas ago there was a Judge who told me if the nursing home was privately owned they could give me information if they wanted to but state or government run homes were different and had a different set of laws to follow. Here is my problem, I had a great, great Aunt who was in a nursing home in Butler County, OH. She died in 1994. She never knew any of her family, she had been in institutions for her entire life. My mother never even knew she existed until we started the genealogy hunt together and found her birth record and some other records to show us that she belonged to our family. That was in 1996. We went to this nursing home the lady pulled the records out and let me see that they had them, the file was probably 8 inches thick. She wouldn't give me any information out of them. My Aunt never married, she had epilepsy and they thought she was crazy and she lived in the Orient in Columbus and in many foster care homes until she was placed in this nursing home when the Orient closed down. Now she was the youngest of this family besides a brother. My grandmother and 3 other sisters and the boy were all put in orphans homes in 1906 when their father died. Now my mother would be the niece of this lady and my mother and all her siblings are gone. My grandmother always wanted to find all her siblings she found the 3 sisters but never found the brother. I have since found where he went. He was sent to WV to a family there. Now I know the records for my Aunt in this nursing home will give me answers to a lot of questions because I have also talked with one family that they would let her visit in Columbus. I need to know if there is a legal way to be able to see these records? There is no one left but me to care. If the boy were still alive he would be 106 years old. All siblings have died, she never married, there are no children of hers, my mother's entire family are gone. I don't see how Hippa Privacy can come into play since I have asked many times since 1996 for the information. So I am hoping someone can tell me how I can legally get information for genealogical purposes only and to fulfill a wish of my grandmother of finding all siblings. Thanks so much in advance for any help you can give. Cindy Dear Cindy, This is probably not a HIPAA issue, since that law was not in effect when the records were created. Rather, I believe that it is more of a misplaced concern over liability, unwillingness to read through such a think file, or maybe an reluctance to admit that they have lost track of the records. While the suggestion of providing the nursing home with a signed release may be sound, I would suggest that it be signed by all known relatives. This would probably be more likely to get the result you are seeking. You don't mention any religious affiliation for any of the nursing homes. In my experience, the Roman Catholic Church is even more of a brick wall. I wrote to a Catholic cemetery in New York where several of my wife's family are buried, asking about interment records, and was told that only the Archbishop had the authority to release those records. The problem was that there were just names -- no dates -- on a common tombstone. I guess there are still people around who believe that the dead still have privacy rights! Wilson DeCamp Leesburg, VA