Thanks to the efforts of Brooke Schreier Ganz and Reclaim The Records, all of the New Jersey death index records for about half of 1920-1924, all of 1925-1929, and then from 1949 to 2017 are now available online. That is despite an earlier request by a different organization that “…tried to get a copy of the very same death index from the New Jersey Department of Health on his own. Oh no, said an attorney for the state to [you], we can’t just give you a copy of the death index! Why, we have rules about mortality data, and privacy!”
Reclaim The Records took a different approach by hiring an attorney and filing a similar request under New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The request was soon filled without resistance by the state. The information supplied is an INDEX, not images of the original records.
Best of all, it’s now all online for free at www.NewJerseyDeathIndex.com!
You can read more in the report by Brooke Schreier Ganz at http://bit.ly/2NN1RWk.
One Comment
Finally, NJ did something. The only downfall, as I see this (along with several sites that publish social security info) is that social security numbers are included. They “can” lead to problems for some people. I was told to always keep mine as private as possible Thanks, Mr. Eastman for your hard work in giving us genealogical & related info. Much appreciated.
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