Great News for Pennsylvania Researchers -- Sorta
- Details
- Category: General
- Updated: 28 January 2013
- Posted: 25 January 2013
In the latest online newsletter from the Pennsylvania State Archives, it's announced that the digitizing of death certificates from 1906-1962 has commenced, and they should be available by the end of 2013. This is great, right? Well, mostly.
They've partnered with Ancestry.com for the project. So, yes, it's great news if you have an Ancestry.com subscription -- or know someone who does.
I have nothing against free enterprise. Everyone's gotta pay the bills. But I'm always disappointed to find that all roads seem to lead to pay-to-play sites. Especially since, for most of us, this is a hobby, not a paying job. And it really infuriates me when I find a site that purports to provide links to things I'm looking for, but it turns out it's really just a link-farm for Ancestry.com, Archives.com, or Fold3.com.
There are so many organizations and individuals who donate time and materials to make information available at no charge. The death certificates for Missouri, Arizona, and Texas, for example, are online and available for FREE.
I'm surprised I'm not more thrilled by this latest news, considering my attempts to research my husband's family in Pennsylvania have been an exercise in futility. I have never received a response to any inquiry I've sent to Pennsylvania -- and yes, I included the money and the return envelope. Don't know what they did with the envelope. :-)
