Phyllis McLaughlin
Mar 24, 2025
Legislation could impair access to birth records
The Association of Professional Genealogists has issued a plea for urgent action by its membership to protect access to vital records in Indiana.
The Hoosier House of Representatives, for some reason, has approved proposed legislation that would expand the restriction on birth-certificate access from 75 years, which has been the standard for decades, to 99 years. HB 1148 is headed to the state Senate for debate.
The current threshold “has balanced privacy concerns with the public’s right to access historical records. Arbitrarily extending the wait to 99 years serves no clear purpose other than restrict access to our collective history.” according to a memo published by the APG on March 19, 2025, stating that similar legislation was attempted last year but didn’t make it out of committee.
Genealogists rely on these records; for those of us who offer professional research services, it could be of us, this would likely be detrimental to our livelihoods by limiting our access any births recorded between 1925 to 1950. That's a loss of 25 years' worth of history. Birth records are public records, and do not provide more than a person's date of birth and birth parents. No sensitive information is included, such as Social Security numbers.
APG urges Indiana genealogists to contact their senators and demand the bill be rejected, and posted a link to Google Docs with the information needed to do just that. Those of us who don’t live in Indiana, but do conduct research in the Hoosier State, are urged to contact Gov. Mike Braun.
We all have to do what we can to fight the passage of this bill. Share this information with anyone you know who understands how important access is to our historic vital records.