I have seen this "closing" of records on several sites for several states. What I find interesting is that birth and death announcements were placed much of the time in the newspapers of the area, which in my mind makes them "public record". It seems to me the government is going a little too far to protect identities. I understand the concerns about identity theft but as one writer put it, everytime you use the internet you have a chance of having your identity stolen. It may be too late now, but maybe and exception could have been made for genealogists but I guess trying to ascertain and identify true researchers would be too cumbersome for the government. Edie