Cook County IL death records 1995 and forward

LegacyUser

Sue Averyt said: I use the Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1878 - 1994, Collection every day. The collection has helped me a great deal. Are there any plans to add transcribed death records from 1995 and later? I need later records, too.

I seldom pay Cook County for the online "genealogy" death certificates because short order it gets just too expensive. I usually don't need the actual death certificates, just the information that's on them. I wonder just how much money the Illinois counties generate with this policy. My state of Oklahoma is just as bad.

LegacyUser

David Newton said: Cook County actually release information like that? No, no, no, no! That would cost them too much money!

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Illinois has a state freedom of information act, which prescribes the prices of copies as well as access. There are a couple of problems -- those that are too recent (the person must have died more then twenty years ago, so 1995-1999 should be available at this time). The second problem is that vital records are not considered to be public records and so does not follow the state Freedom of Information act.

The http://www.dph.illinois.gov/foia site covers the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and how to make a request.

For genealogical purposes with regard to birth and death records, see http://www.dph.illinois.gov/topics-se... covers the basics.

http://www.dph.illinois.gov/sites/def... is a form that outlines the requirements to obtain an uncertified copy of an Illinois death certificate.

There is a cost involved: $10 per certificate.

As to FamilySearch providing more recent record indexes than those currently offered (1878 - 1994 for Cook County and 1916-1947 for the rest of the state), that depends upon FamilySearch obtaining the contractual rights to digitize those records and make them available, having a team available, and for an index, getting the volunteers to index the images, once obtained.

Obviously, the statewide records are definitely in need of being updated to include 1948 - 1999. Cook County would need to include 1995 - 1999.

So it becomes a matter of available resources, which by the nature of FamilySearch are limited.

There is an organization that was mentioned in a discussion (now over a year ago) that has a web site that deals with public access to vital records on a state-by-state basis. I didn't (shame on me) bookmark that site's URL, so do not have it. Hopefully, someone has the URL and can provide it in this discussion.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: For more information concerning available vital records for Illinois, see https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/...

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: It should be noted that most states do consider death certificates to be in the public domain and make them available, regardless of relationship. However, there may be limitations regarding access within a certain number of years following the death (20 years in the case of Illinois).

In many cases, a researcher may need to access the records via the state's resources and not FamilySearch or Ancestry...

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: Reclaim the Records (https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/) , an organisation that has a good track record of having illegal restrictions on access to genealogical records overturned in court, announced on 13 February via social media they have hired an attorney in Illinois to tackle restrictions on genealogical records in that state. On 17 February a bill was introduced in the state legislature to reduce fees for coroner's reports (but my understanding is that all records kept by the judiciary are exempt from the IL FOIA).

But if vital records are not covered by the state FOIA, RTR won't be able to win access through the courts. Change could only come through political action. I note that in the United States, unlike most countries, the County Clerk, in charge of vital records, is an elected position, so I encourage all US genealogists to fully participate in the elections for that position.