Reclaim the Records: New York Wants to Lock Up Vital Records — Again!

 I received this today from Reclaim the Records:

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New York Wants to Lock Up Vital Records — Again! 😫

Here’s How We Can Stop It, If We Act Fast

A backdoor proposal to essentially ban public access to birth, marriage, and death records

got snuck into their annual budget bill?!

Hi again from Reclaim The Records, that little non-profit which likes to pry historical and genealogical files and databases out of government archives, libraries, and agencies, and then puts them all online for totally free public use. And we're back in your inbox today with some absolutely infuriating news about public records access. (There's a lot of that going around lately, we know, but this one is particularly awful for genealogists.)

We need your help to stop a horrible records access rule change that New York has hidden in its annual budget proposal, and we have only DAYS to get them to stop it. Please read this newsletter carefully, and note what you can do -- especially if you are a New Yorker, or someone with New York roots, or you just really really don't like politicians hiding public access to public records, especially without any public debate or warning.

As part of New York State's Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal, Part U of the Health and Mental Hygiene Legislation would:

😡 Extend embargo periods to 125 years for birth records, 100 years for marriages, and 75 years for deaths — making New York one of the most restrictive states for vital records access in the entire country!

😡 Hike fees by more than 400%, raising the cost of a single genealogical record request to $95!

🤬 Eliminate even the basic vital records indexes, making it nearly impossible to simply confirm if a record exists in the first place!

The rationale for this sneaky law change claims that this will “streamline operations” and “digitize records,” but the reality is that the state is now trying to dodge their responsibilities. Instead of addressing New York's five-year backlog of unfulfilled "genealogy requests" from members of the public, who are just trying to get copies of records, the state now wants to rewrite the law to stop serving the public entirely.

And now we need your help to stop them. We just built a brand new website that outlines the proposal, provides detailed context about the state of New York’s vital records, the state's terrible records management, and their past behaviors which have deprioritized genealogists and records access in general. We're backing up our words with screenshots of internal state e-mails we've gotten over the years through our Freedom of Information requests, copies of state Inspector General reports detailing the state's records protection problems, and copies of publicly available documents like the state's multi-million dollar digitization contracts. And we've put it all together for you to read.

And here it is:

Learn all about this new awful proposal to cut off public access to New York records, and what you can do to help stop it!:

🚨 www.NYSVitalRecords.org 🚨

What You Can Do to Help

This is important. We only have a few days, so please do these items as soon as you get this e-mail.

💥 If You Live in New York:

Call and email your State Senator and Assembly Member immediately. Tell them how this bill will impact you, your business, your research, or your family. Personal emails and phone calls are the most effective—even better if you can request a meeting.

You can find you NYS Senator's name and contact information here. And you can find your NYS Assembly Member's name and contact information here.

💥 For Everyone (Inside & Outside of NY):

Submit Written Testimony -- this means your comments about this proposal! -- by THIS TUESDAY, February 11 at 5 PM EST!

📩 Send your written testimony to: wamchair@nyassembly.gov and financechair@nysenate.gov. 📩

📩 If you're a New York resident, your e-mail should also cc: Governor Kathy Hochul at Governor.Hochul@exec.ny.gov.

💥 Spread the Word — TODAY!

Tell your colleagues, genealogy groups, historical societies, social media, and anyone else who values public records. The more voices we have, the stronger our opposition.

💥 Team Up With Other Organizations

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) has published their open letter to the New York State Legislature, outlining the significant flaws in the proposed legislation and BVR's attitude towards the genealogy community.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) has also created a landing page with key details about this issue, including additional action steps.

Again, our deadline is THIS TUESDAY, February 11, 2025, at 5 PM EST. And our new website, with alllll the details about this awful proposal, and how to try to stop it, is 🚨 www.NYSVitalRecords.org 

Help Us Keep Fighting – Donate Today!

Reclaim The Records is a small but mighty organization that fights for public access to historical records. We don’t take government funding — we rely entirely on grassroots support from people like you.

🔹 If you believe in open records, transparency, and genealogical rights, please make a donation today.

🔹 Every dollar goes directly toward legal efforts, public awareness campaigns, and the fight against record closures like this one.

💙 Click here to donate now! Your support helps us keep up the fight. 💙

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/02/reclaim-records-new-york-wants-to-lock.html

Copyright (c) 2025, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.   Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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Reclaim the Records Does It Again! -- the Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Database is Freely Available!

 I received the recent newsletter from Reclaim the Records, and it has wonderful news for genealogy researchers.  The Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) database is available to search for FREE, and the user can order via a FOIA request the complete file for any deceased veteran who served and received Veteran Affairs (VA) benefits.

What is BIRLS?  Here is the description on the Reclaim the Records BIRLS website:

The Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) database was originally created and maintained by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). It provides an index to basic biographical information on more than 18 million deceased American veterans who received some sort of veterans benefits in their lifetime, including health care, disability or life insurance policies, educational benefits (the GI Bill), mortgage assistance (VA loans), and more. The BIRLS database includes people who served in all branches of the US military, including some branches that no longer exist, such as the Women's Army Corps (WACs) and the Army Air Corps, as well as a few associated non-military groups and government agencies, such as NOAA. It even includes files for some non-US nationals, including veterans of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and Philippine Scouts and Guerillas, who served prior to and during the Second World War.

In 2018, the non-profit organization Reclaim The Records filed what would become a multi-year but ultimately successful Freedom of Information Act or FOIA lawsuit against the VA, winning the right to obtain and publish the majority of the BIRLS database. The data was finally handed over by the VA in 2022. Through this website, the BIRLS database is now freely searchable online and even downloadable as free, public, and open data, for the first time.

Finding a name listed in the BIRLS database means that you can make a free FOIA request for a copy of that deceased veteran's full VA claims file, which may contain hundreds of pages of never-before-seen biographical and historical material about the veteran, their military service, and their interactions with the VA. These files are an incredible resource about the lives of American veterans who served from the late nineteenth century up through the present day. But because 95% of these claims files have not yet been transferred out of the VA to the National Archives, and because until very recently it was almost impossible to access the records through FOIA, these materials were largely unknown and inaccessible to historians, journalists, and genealogists -- until now.

There is a large button to Search the BIRLS Database on the webpage. The user can put in information for their veteran.

 

I put my father's first, middle and last name into the system, hit the "Submit My Request" button at the bottom of the form, and received no results.  I took out the middle name (as on the image above), and got results:

My father is the first name on the results list for some reason.  This is not an "exact" search - the results list also shows alternate name spellings.  However, the birth date for my father is incorrect - their records may not have a birth date for some reason (they assumed 90 years of age at death, I think).  And the index says "Unknown" for the branch of the service he was in - it was the U.S. Navy.

There may be more information when I click on the "carat" link on the left of his name on the results list.  It shows:

It appears that the BIRLS system does not know when my father enlisted, was released from active duty, his service time, his cause of death, or his gender.  It does know his Social Security Number.  

The botton at the bottom of the image above says "Submit a Free Request Online for this Veteran's C-File -- FREE!"  When I did that I could fill out a form and send it via email for FREE using a request letter formatted by Reclaim the Records.

The Reclaim the Records page says:

The VA might ask you to pay a few cents per page for any file that they find and copy, but we've found that they usually don't bother to charge FOIA requesters for this service. Occasionally, small parts of the file may be redacted (withheld, or blacked out) if any part of the information in it refers to a possibly-living person, or for other legal reasons. Processing times for these types of FOIA requests usually take a few months, and the documents will most likely be sent to you as digital files placed on a DVD sent by postal mail (even though the VA is legally supposed to provide copies to you via e-mail or file transfer website, if asked).

There are 6 steps - Veteran's Info, Your Info, Agree to Terms (you have to check a box), Sign Form (with your finger), Review Request, and Send FOIA Letter.

This is FREE.  The Reclaim the Records site says they fax a PDF of your request letter to the special FOIA group within the Veterans Benefits Administration and they also send you an email with the request letter.  

The Reclaim the Records site indicates that it may take 6 to 8 weeks to receive a response once they receive the fax of the FOIA letter.  

I also requested information on my maternal grandfather, Lyle L. Carringer (1891-1976) who was the U.S. Marines Reserve during World War I.  

This is really easy to do, and it may result in information that I don't have about the military service of my father and grandfather.  I will report on what I receive when I receive it.

One more thing:  You can sign up for the email list for Reclaim the Records on their website at the very bottom of the page.  While you're there, check out all of the other records that they have provided, for FREE, from several government agencies, on their Records Request page.

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/12/reclaim-records-does-it-again.html

Copyright (c) 2024, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.   Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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Tuesday's Tip - Check Out the Missouri Death Index (1968-2015) and Birth Index (1920-2015)

 Reclaim the Records has done it again - they pried loose these records from Missouri to help genealogy researchers with vital records from Missouri.  BRAVO!!  You can read about it in   https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/state/missouri/.

1)  For the Missouri Death Index (1968-2015), there are currently 2,598,472 entries:

The death index provides only the name of the deceased person and the death date because of Missouri state law restrictions.  On the Death Index page, there are search fields for the first - middle - last name and for a death date range.  You can search for Exact name or Sound-alike surnames.  I entered "seaver" and chose "Exact" and received 25 matches:

When I searched for Sound-alike surnames, I received 100 matches and a note that said they were providing only the first hundred matches.

I searched using a * wild card for arn* and sea* and it worked - gave me one Arnold Seaver and a lot of Arnolds.  So it gives results as if each was exact but not both are exact.  Interesting!

2)  For the Missouri Birth Index (1920-2015), there are currently 7,501,974 entries.  

The birth index provides only the name of the child and the birth date because of Missouri state law restrictions.  On the Birth Index page, there are search fields for the first - middle - last name and for a birth date range.  You can search for Exact name or Sound-alike surnames.  I entered "seaver" and chose "Exact" and received 62 matches:

When I search for Sound-alike surnames, I received 100 matches and a note that said they were providing only the first hundred matches.

Not having the parents names in the index makes it difficult to determine family makeup.

3)  Reclaim the Records says they will add death and birth records for the years 2016-2019, so check back often.

Both sites provide links to order birth and/or death certificates, but there are restrictions on who can obtain them.

4)  These records will be useful, especially for persons named in census, city directories, obituaries or news articles.

5)  NOTE:  These records are free to access thanks to Reclaim the Records.  The actual index images are free to download on the Internet Archive as text .csv files  The indexes are in date order by decade (e.g., from 1/1/1970 to 12/31/1979).  But a user can search them when saved on their computer.

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/10/tuesdays-tip-check-out-missouri-death.html

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.