Va. bill aims to make death, marriage records public sooner

RICHMOND

Motivated by a growing public interest in genealogy, in part sparked by websites that help people track their ancestry, the House today advanced a bill to make certain records available to the public sooner.

The bill (full text) by Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, would make death, marriage, divorce and annulment records available to the public 25 years sooner. Right now, those documents aren’t public until 50 years after the date they’re created.

Current law also makes those records public 100 years after the birth of the person who is the subject of the document.

The Virginia Coalition for Open Government supports the bill, which is in part motivated by public interest in sites such as www.ancestry.com, Peace testified this morning before the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions.

The committee unanimously approved the bill, sending it to the House floor for consideration.