- I had to order a copy of a Missouri birth certificate on short notice recently. I ordered it through VitalChek. Now the trick is not to order birth certificates from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services in Jefferson City, which is the main repository. Instead, order them from Kansas City or St Louis, which both have statewide records. I picked Kansas City. I was told that processing time at the agency would be 3-5 business days before shipping. In this case, I also opted for UPS air delivery. I placed the order on Tuesday, April 20, and had the birth certificate in my hands before 3:00 pm on Thursday, April 22. Now that’s service!
- I found a federal criminal case from the late 1930s in Arizona. I consulted Ron Arons’ recent book, Wanted!, which disclosed that the case file should be found at NARA’s Pacific Region at Laguna Nigel (now actually Riverside). I called NARA and chatted with some of the most pleasant people I’ve run across. They found the file, took my credit card number ($15.00 to copy and ship this file) and I had it in a matter of days! No muss, no fuss. Thanks to the archivists and support staff at NARA Pacific!
Tag Archive for Arizona
Genealogical Customer Service Kudos
Census Sometimes Little Help Tracking Migrations
I put my census form in the mail a little after the first of the month. I also scanned it, and I’m making some family group sheets to go with photographs. All these items together will constitute our family’s census 2010 documentation.
Seventy-two years from now, family researchers may conclude that I have lived in the same county for an uninterrupted thirty years or more. I was here on Census Day 1980, Census Day 1990, Census Day 2000, and Census Day 2010. Of the six censuses on which I should appear including the present, four of them show me living in Sacramento County. In fact, during that 30 year period of time, I have lived in Prince George’s County, Maryland; Pima County, Arizona; Suffolk and Norfolk counties in England; El Paso County, Colorado; Alexandria city, Virginia (twice); and Fairfax County, Virginia (basically in that order). But somehow, I always manage to be back in Sacramento County at census time.
At the time of the 1970 census, I lived in Monterey County, California. Before the 1970 census, I had spent more than half my life to that point, living in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. At the time of the 1960 census, I actually lived in Karlsruhe, Baden-Wuerttemburg, Bundesrepublik Deutschland [Federal Republic of Germany, then popularly known as "West Germany"], very near the French border.
So in 1960, my family was among the 1,374,422 Americans living abroad. (Oops, make that 1,374,421 –Elvis had left the Bundesrepublik on March 1 before Census Day). These consisted not only of military personnel and their dependents living with them, but included federal civilian employees stationed abroad and their dependents living with them; crews of vessels of the US merchant Marine at sea or docked at a foreign port; and private US citizens living abroad for an extended period and their dependents living with them. In 1960, none of these people were enumerated stateside, and hence were not included in the apportionment of Congress. (See Mills, Karen M., Americans Overseas in US Censuses, Technical Paper #62, US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1993, available at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/overseas/techn62-1.pdf ).
My dad, an Army first lieutenant at the time, received a form like the one below, and filled it out. He returned the form through his chain of command, and it, like all such forms, was eventually shipped to the Census Operations Center at Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Census form used by military personnel overseas in 1960 (front and back)
One result of the 1960 census for my family was that the government had two different domiciles for us: the Census Bureau said we were domiciled “overseas,” and the Army said we were residents of Harris County, Texas, a place I had only visited for less than a week in my entire life to that point. What a country!
The rule about where to count Americans overseas, i.e., as part of their “home state” population or some “Americans abroad” population, has been different from time to time. Starting in 1990, the rule was to count them as part of their home state population, which of course has an effect on congressional apportionment. In 2010, the pre-1990 rule will be back in effect: Americans abroad will not be counted as part of their home states populations.
At the time of the 1950 census, my dad was a high school senior, and a census enumerator. And I, well, I simply was non-existent.
No census shows me at the place of my birth or reflects the time I spent living in Marion County, Indiana.
Where were you during the censuses of the last fifty years? How well does the census document where you’ve been?
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1950 Census, 1960 Census, 1970 Census, 1980 Census, 1990 Census, 2000 Census, 2010 Census, African-Americans, Albuquerque, Alexandria Virginia, Arizona, Bernalillo County New Mexico, California, Census Records, El Paso County Colorado, Fairfax County Virginia, Pima County, Sacramento County California, Suffolk and Norfolk counties (UK)
Open State Vital Records: Some of the Best States
One of Several Posts about Open Government Laws and Genealogy
I’ve made a brief survey of state vital records laws and here present some of the “best” states in terms of “openness.” These determinations are based on several factors: whether law provides that vital records are “open” or “public”; whether reasonable “confidential periods” are imposed; whether reasonable fees are required; whether procedures for obtaining records are uncomplicated, and whether in my sole judgment, the state is more user-friendly than not when allowing access to vital records.
A note about some terms used by states to describe their records policies: some states say that they are “open” or “public” records states, while others say they are “closed” records states. Do not put too much emphasis on these self-descriptions. The fact is that states use these terms without much consideration. As a result, some so-called “open” records states may have, in practice, more restrictive access than so-called “closed” records states.
In my view, a confidentiality period longer than fifty years for death records or seventy-five years for birth records is unreasonable. And any confidentiality period for ordinary marriage records is unreasonable.
Now, some of the best states for access to vital records:
- Arizona: supposedly a “closed” records state. Allows public access to non-certified copies of birth records after 75 years, death recotds after 50 years. What else makes Arizona great: the Arizona Dpeartment of Health Services has placed birth and death records online.
- Illinois: Uncertified birth records after 1916 available after 75 years; uncertified death records after 20 years. What else make Illinois great: very good website; no images but easy to search.
- Missouri: Birth records seem to be highly restricted, but the Show-Me state makes this list because death records are available after fifty years and the Missouri State Archives has a great website of death certificates with PDF versions of the certificates. Jackson County [Kansas City area] has an excellent website with images of marriage licenses.
- Texas: Birth records available to public after 75 years; death records after 25 years. What else makes Texas great: an easy-to-use online order system for vital records.
- Wisconsin: Uncertified copies of birth and death records are available to anyone who applies. Caveat: No birth record is public concerning (1) a child born to unmarried parents when paternity has not been established, or (2) a child born to unmarried parents when paternity was established by court order.
