[Genealib] state death indexes

[Larry Naukam]

In NY state, they maintain a series of microfiche, going alphabetically,
year by year, from 1880 (1 fiche, with 1881 being the first full set of
fiche) to 1957 for deaths; the same 1881-1957 for marriages; and 1881-1932
for births. On the fiche, there is the name, the certificate number, the
place of the event and the date. That's it.
 
People can then get the full certificate from the county or the state as
they choose. If the certificate number is found, then there is no validity
to the claim that it isn't on file. Of course, how well the laws were
followed makes a difference. Our anecdotal evidence has been that it was WW
I times before compliance was reliable.

And this does not include NY City. The fiche I have referred to is the rest
of the state, excepting Buffalo, Albany and Yonkers cities, which were added
in after 1914. These fiche used to be available only in Albany but have
since been placed in about 7 public libraries around the state. There are
very strict regs about access, copying (not allowed except by hand) online
(not allowed at all); and the state DOES do unannounced undercover
inspections. You'd better believe that we obey those regs!

How busy have these been? Since we got them here in Sept. 2000, there have
been in excess of 275,000 uses. And that's with 6 other sites around the
state going live since we did.