The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH)  at the request of several Oklahoma Legislators are asking for feedback on a specific issue: If you have been denied a death certificate from the Oklahoma State Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics since 1 November 2011, please send that information to news@okgensoc.org.

Recently,  access to death records have been restricted and  the Oklahoma Genealogical Society was asked by OSDH through the authors of the bill to document how many people have actually been denied a death certificate since the enactment of a law restricting access went into effect.

Background:

In November 2011 an omnibus bill by the Oklahoma Department of Health included a  provision for death records that  only the person of record may request the record-another words only the deceased may request their own death record. Until February 2013  when a professional genealogist requested  a client’s family death record did it become known that as of this February—15 months after the omnibus bill was passed– the Department of Health was preventing such access.  The Oklahoma Genealogical Society is working to have this provision changed which is the genesis of the bill authors and OSDH request.

If you have been denied access to a death records since November 1, 2011 please share that information with the Oklahoma Genealogical Society at news@okgensoc.org –do not send it to me.