The following was posted tonight and is only partially correct: . < The new legislation passed and signed under the former Gov. Davis and his < cronies, requires persons who live out of state plus those in state who need < CERTIFIED copies of their BIRTH, DEATH, MARRIAGE records must complete a NOTARIZED STATEMENT sworn under < penalty of perjury that the requestor is an AUTHORIZED person to receive, with requests. Many people need < these for passports quickly as an example. The correction/clarification is as follows: The California law which recently went into effect regarding vital records,, had absolutely nothing to do with marriages - only birth and death records. I obtain certified copies of birth and death certificates as regular part of my genealogical research business and am not related. The thing is to correctly request these.. The fact is, anyone, living anywhere, can obtain a certified copy copy of a birth or death certificate for a recorded birth or death which occurred in California. However, If related, you must submit proof of relationship as specified by the new law. If NOT related, you must state that you are requesting an "INFORMATIONAL certificate". This certificate will be exactly like the one sent to those who submit proof of relationship, but across the face of the INFORMATIONAL certificate are the words: "INFORMATION ONLY. NOT FOR LEGAL IDENTIFICATION". These words do not obliterate or block out any of the information on the certificates. For genealogical purposes most of us do not need a copy that does not have those words as no information is obliterated or blocked out or hidden on the INFORMATIONAL certified copy. Birth certificates costs $15, death certificates cost $13.00. These can be ordered from the State Department of Health Services, State Office of Vital Records, 2500 L Street, Sacramento (or visit their web site at http://www.dhs.ca.gov (then select "Services") The turn around is a minimum of 4 weeks after they receive your order. Or, if you know in which county the event occurred, you can send directly to the County Recorder of that county. Marriages should be ordered ONLY from the county where the license was obtained and filed. The turn around time if ordered from the State Office is not less than THREE YEARS! - yes, years, according to their own information. So always try to determine where the license was issued and order from the County Recorder in that county. The record is only where the license was obtained which may not always be where the marriage occurred. Marriage records cost $15.00 If you do not know exact date for any of these events, you can request a 10 year search. You specify which 10 years to be searched. If found, you will receive the certificate. Hope this clarifies. Mary

As soon as I saw the politically charged statement..."Gov Davis and his cronies.." I knew trouble would follow. The bill limited access to some records to prevent identity theft. It does not affect us researchers--just changes the way the Death Certs look. No problem at all. Funny how people will find any opportunity to inject rude remarks into anything.. Joe M I Sims <[email protected]> wrote: The following was posted tonight and is only partially correct: . < The new legislation passed and signed under the former Gov. Davis and his < cronies, requires persons who live out of state plus those in state who need < CERTIFIED copies of their BIRTH, DEATH, MARRIAGE records must complete a NOTARIZED STATEMENT sworn under < penalty of perjury that the requestor is an AUTHORIZED person to receive, with requests. Many people need < these for passports quickly as an example. The correction/clarification is as follows: The California law which recently went into effect regarding vital records,, had absolutely nothing to do with marriages - only birth and death records. I obtain certified copies of birth and death certificates as regular part of my genealogical research business and am not related. The thing is to correctly request these.. The fact is, anyone, living anywhere, can obtain a certified copy copy of a birth or death certificate for a recorded birth or death which occurred in California. However, If related, you must submit proof of relationship as specified by the new law. If NOT related, you must state that you are requesting an "INFORMATIONAL certificate". This certificate will be exactly like the one sent to those who submit proof of relationship, but across the face of the INFORMATIONAL certificate are the words: "INFORMATION ONLY. NOT FOR LEGAL IDENTIFICATION". These words do not obliterate or block out any of the information on the certificates. For genealogical purposes most of us do not need a copy that does not have those words as no information is obliterated or blocked out or hidden on the INFORMATIONAL certified copy. Birth certificates costs $15, death certificates cost $13.00. These can be ordered from the State Department of Health Services, State Office of Vital Records, 2500 L Street, Sacramento (or visit their web site at http://www.dhs.ca.gov (then select "Services") The turn around is a minimum of 4 weeks after they receive your order. Or, if you know in which county the event occurred, you can send directly to the County Recorder of that county. Marriages should be ordered ONLY from the county where the license was obtained and filed. The turn around time if ordered from the State Office is not less than THREE YEARS! - yes, years, according to their own information. So always try to determine where the license was issued and order from the County Recorder in that county. The record is only where the license was obtained which may not always be where the marriage occurred. Marriage records cost $15.00 If you do not know exact date for any of these events, you can request a 10 year search. You specify which 10 years to be searched. If found, you will receive the certificate. Hope this clarifies. Mary ==== SOCAL Mailing List ==== Do NOT post virus notices to the list. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it!