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Comments needed on embargo proposal

Posted on Facebook by the President of the Delaware Genealogical Society:

Delaware action alert

The link to the bill information shown in the image is to this page of the Delaware Geneal Assembly website.

Access to vital records is essential for genealogical research and critical to those researching inherited medical conditions and military repatriation cases, where the effort is to return the remains of fallen service members to their families. Identification theft is not prevented by closing these records and leaving death records wide open actually prevents it.

There is no federal standard for embargo periods on vital records. Some states are open record states and these documents are readily available immediately. Any misuse of vital records, and particularly death records, can be avoided simply by marking all copies not certified for the persons or family members involved as research or genealogical copies so they can’t be used for identification.

If you care about records access and have any ties to Delaware at all, please speak out now. As stated by the President of the Delaware Genealogical Society, “If you are a Delaware resident, I encourage you to write or call your Delaware State Senator to share your thoughts. If you live out of state, then contact the Committee Chair, Brian Townsend.”

The hearing is on Wednesday, June 5, so there’s no time to lose.


Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “ACTION ALERT: Delaware vital records,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 31 May 2019).

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