In reference to getting better access to older Pennsylvania state birth and death certificates, on September 19th, 2011 Vital Records Bill SB-361 unanimously passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now on the floor of the State Senate. We have heard the bill might come up for a vote by the entire Senate as early as the week of September 26th, but we cannot assume it will or that it will pass. We need to urge the senate leaders and the rest of the State Senators to make sure the bill doesn't get derailed or sidetracked (old railroading terms, isn't history wonderful) and to make sure the bill gets as many favorable votes as possible. The bill is simple in that it just makes death certificates over 50 years old and birth certificates over 100 years old in Pennsylvania open records. It also requires the records be handed over to the Pennsylvania State Archives. Once the bill becomes law it would be then possible to have the records online. Without this change in the law the records will remain very restricted forever. This is discussed in detail in the September 20th & 21st, 2011 article under The Latest News section of our website: http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access.htm (includes a sample letter for this bill). If you would please let everyone you can know about this (including out of state residents). Visits, phone calls, letters are the most effective, but even a one paragraph email sent to at least one state senator is better than nothing. Hearing from organizations, their constituents and others could prove decisive in getting the bill passed by the State Senate.
The bill passed the Senate. It now must go to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The top of this page http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access-ThisWeeksNews.htm#Oct 2, 2011 (note, must copy and paste beause the 2, 2011 is being left off the URL in this email program) gives important details about when particular counties stopped recording births. Halfway down the same page are specifics about the Bill's future. That section starts with: Senator Robbins' Vital Records Bill SB-361 was unanimously passed by the State Senate yesterday. Judy On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Gina Nestor <jgnestor@comcast.net> wrote: > In reference to getting better access to older Pennsylvania state birth > and death certificates, on September 19th, 2011 Vital Records Bill > SB-361 unanimously passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now > on the floor of the State Senate. We have heard the bill might come up > for a vote by the entire Senate as early as the week of September 26th, > but we cannot assume it will or that it will pass. We need to urge the > senate leaders and the rest of the State Senators to make sure the bill > doesn't get derailed or sidetracked (old railroading terms, isn't > history wonderful) and to make sure the bill gets as many favorable > votes as possible. > > The bill is simple in that it just makes death certificates over 50 > years old and birth certificates over 100 years old in Pennsylvania open > records. It also requires the records be handed over to the Pennsylvania > State Archives. Once the bill becomes law it would be then possible to > have the records online. Without this change in the law the records will > remain very restricted forever. This is discussed in detail in the > September 20th & 21st, 2011 article under The Latest News section of our > website: http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access.htm (includes a sample > letter for this bill). > > If you would please let everyone you can know about this (including out > of state residents). Visits, phone calls, letters are the most > effective, but even a one paragraph email sent to at least one state > senator is better than nothing. Hearing from organizations, their > constituents and others could prove decisive in getting the bill passed > by the State Senate. > > ****