MEMORANDUM TO THE GENEALOGICAL COMMUNITY

FROM: Peter E. Broadbent, Jr.

DATE: March 27, 2012

RE: Access to Virginia’s Vital Records – HB 272, SB 309 and SB 310; and SB 660

Good News! Governor Bob McDonnell has now signed into law two Virginia General Assembly bills to:

1. A. Reduce the “closed” period for records of marriages and deaths held by the Virginia Department of Health (“VDH”) from 50 years to 25 years (HB 272). 
   
   
2. Make it clear that after the “closed” period ends for vital records, these records should go to the Library of Virginia like any other archival records; direct VDH to create an online vital records index which is publicly available online through a contract with a private entity at no direct cost to the Commonwealth (both Ancestry and FamilySearch have offered to do this); and specify that the index will be capable of being linked to the underlying digital documents (if those are public) by the Library of Virginia (SB 660).

These important changes in the law will become effective July 1, 2012. The change in the “closed” periods for marriage and death records should provide immediate access to more records; turning the open records over to LVA and creating an online index may take several years to implement.

Two other bills (parallel to HB 272), SB 309 and SB 310, were effectively folded into SB 660.

General Assembly members have told me that the thousands of messages they received from genealogists since the Virginia Genealogical Society (“VGS”) first contacted the Joint Commission on Health Care in March of last year made the difference in pushing through these bills.

One final thing you can do is to send a thank-you note to Governor Bob McDonnell, whose support of these bills (particularly SB 660) was critical in overcoming initial VDH opposition. You can write the Governor at:

Honorable Robert F. McDonnell
Office of the Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

or by filling out an email form at: http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm and thank him for supporting and signing HB 272 and SB 660 improving genealogical and historical research.

While this year’s legislative victories should result in improved access to public records, benefitting family and professional researchers and lineage society applicants, there are still potentially more improvements which VDH can make in broadening family and researcher access to “closed” vital records, particularly births (still closed for 100 years). The Virginia Genealogical Society would like to see improved access to those “closed” records for family members and researchers, and hopes to discuss this with VDH now that the Governor has effectively opened channels of communications with that agency.

Thank you again for your support of vital records reform.

Respectfully,

Peter E. Broadbent, Jr.
Former President, VGS

The Virginia Genealogical Society honored Char McCargo Bah with the VGS Volunteer Award, during the annual VGS meeting on 21 May 2011. "Ancestors are watching and they will take you in the right direction — when it is time." This is a favorite genealogical quote of Char McCargo Bah, this year’s volunteer award recipient.

A native of Alexandria, Char has been doing genealogical research for more than 26 years. Besides being a published author — having been published in the Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society Newsletter, the NGS Magazine, the Halifax County, Virginia Heritage Book and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Journal — Char gives back to her Alexandria community. Her work on the Freedmen Cemetery project in Alexandria, Virginia, garnered Char the 2009 Alexandria History Award. She is continuing in the same vein with her lecture series, “Their Voices Can Be Heard” which began with her research into descendants of people buried at Freedmen’s Cemetery. The Freedmen’s Cemetery, it is an historic African-American burial ground reclaimed by the City of Alexandria in 2007. Since 2008 Char has located dozens of descendants of people buried at Freedmen’s Cemetery, most of whom are 5th and 6th generations removed. Many of the descendants who still live in Alexandria or nearby were not familiar with their Civil War-era ancestors.

Besides all of this, she appeared on the PBS show History Detective and has been interviewed by the BBC, was selected for a documentary with the Ellis Island Foundation, and is a member of the Virginia Genealogical Society, having previously served on the Board as its Historian for two consecutive terms.

For more information on the Virginia Genealogical Society award program, see:

• VGS Awards and Grants Programs
• VGS Awards and Grants Presented