A Public Death: Are digital records behind a paywall better than none at all?

When I initially heard that the state of Virginia had teamed up with Ancestry.com to digitize millions of birth, death, marriage, and divorce records dating back to the 1800s, I started writing an applause post.

After all, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe had trumpeted the project earlier in the month when it went live, saying:

Having all Virginia vital records digitized means millions of public birth, death, marriage and divorce records are now more easily accessed for genealogy and family history research. This project also provides a long-term conservation solution for preserving the rich history of Virginia’s people.

Then I tested out the new system and found out that to see anything you have to pay $20 a month.

While I still applaud the effort, I am troubled by how access to the most basic of public records is now being restricted by fees. Because Virginia is a large and influential state, advocates for free and open access to public records should take note of what is happening there. It may pave the way for similar efforts elsewhere and cut off access to more records in the name of making them more accessible.

First, let me say that the effort to digitize the records is impressive and important. The bulk of these records were, for the most part, in paper files spread throughout the state, of no use to researchers, journalists, or public health advocates. Now, they have all been digitally cataloged and archived with key words, allowing for easy searches of more than 16 million records. All you need is a last name, first name, date, or a range of other details.

Take the example of Philip Oliver, who died in a car crash in 2012 at the age of 20. I typed in Philip and Oliver and was prompted to “view record.” But instead of receiving the record upon clicking, I received a pitch to sign up for Ancestry.com’s service. It says, “See what discoveries you can make today.” The option for “six months” at $99 was already checked. I unchecked it and clicked the 14-day free trial button, which still led me to a screen that required me to put in my payment information. If I don’t cancel before the 14 days, I will be charged $19.99.

Think about that for a minute: $20 a month just so you can view records that were, until now, completely free and open to the public.

And how useful are the records?

What you receive is a tiny fraction of what you would receive if you actually went to a county vital records office and looked up a death certificate. It feels like a rip-off at $19.99 and even after all the time it takes to sign up for a free trial. Here’s what I was able to learn about Philip Oliver’s death: nothing. Not even his actual date of death. His cause of death was not included, and the image of his death certificate was blocked from view.

I assumed that perhaps the state was just catching up, starting with the older years first and moving forward. So I chose a death from 1981. Gerry Bertier was a high school football player who rose to fame after helping his team win the 1971 Virginia state football championship before he was paralyzed in a car accident. He was played by actor Ryan Hurst in the film “Remember the Titans.” Bertier died 10 years after he was paralyzed in a different car accident, and one would expect to see that reflected in his death record on Ancestry.com.

Not so.

Bertier’s record is more detailed than OIiver’s, providing, for example, the names of his parents and his actual death date, but much of the death record remains stuck in the scanned file. If you click on the file, you can view the record, but then what was the point of digitizing some of the information and not all?

Margaret Linford, a columnist at the Smyth County News & Register, wrote the applause piece that I was hoping to write about the digital death records project in Virginia and was much more excited by the project. She wrote:

The release of these records has been eagerly anticipated by genealogists in Virginia for quite some time. Up until now, a portion of the records could be researched by accessing microfilm records at the Library of Virginia or by requesting a copy from the Virginia Department of Health. These methods were time-consuming and involved a small cost. … There are important keys within these death records that help us unlock doors that had, previously, been locked tight. Mysteries within my own family tree have been solved simply by researching these death records.

As for the subscription fee, Linford recommended that people who don’t want to pay the fee visit the Smyth-Bland Regional Library in Marion where they can look up the records for free on the library’s computers. That seems just about as time consuming as the old way of doing things.

One last thing to note. These public records have a public health benefit. State Health Commissioner Dr. Marissa J. Levine, the state health commissioner, put it best when she said:

Family history and individual health are closely linked. Through this project, people can more easily explore their ancestors’ lives and possibly identify family health conditions or hereditary risk factors. This information is empowering and takes us one step closer to our goal of becoming the healthiest state in the nation.

You can supercharge that effort if you allow journalists, researchers, and public health advocates freer access to records so they can analyze trends over time at the population level. That’s simply not the case so far in Virginia. Let’s hope this promising and innovative project takes the next step to give people the access they deserve.

[Photo by M01229 via Flickr.] 

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