Locating vital records for a lineage society application can be a slow and sometimes frustrating process. Professional genealogists, who tend to request birth, death, and marriage certificates more frequently than the average person, can definitely help to ease the process. Yet, there are some records they cannot order. Why?
The simple answer: access laws. Policies concerning vital record access are set on the state level. Some states are considered to be “open record” states. Massachusetts, for example, allows the public to request most records. Others, such as New York, severely restrict access to records and would be considered “closed record” states. Some states, such as Connecticut, fall in between and only restrict access to some records. If the record is restricted to the person named on the record and that person’s immediate family, the genealogist cannot make the request.
What about the “legal representative” category? Some states do indicate a legal representative option, in which the family member can allow another individual to request the record. There are cases in which there is also an option for the family member to allow a genealogist to make the request. While genealogists can use the genealogist request option, it’s often time consuming and actually requires more information than the family member making the request. The “legal representative” option was designed for lawyers; using it for a genealogical request is likely to pose significant difficulty.
If your genealogist is telling you that you need to place the vital record request, there’s a reason! They can likely still guide you through the process, but you’ll need to plan the time and space to do the paperwork yourself.