What is Being Proposed in the FY 2026 NYS Budget?

• Closing off access to New York State birth records for 125 years, marriage records for 100 years, and death records for 75 years, replacing today's waiting periods to obtain uncertified genealogy copies of 75 years for births* and 50 years for marriages* and deaths 

• Eliminating the access provision that waives the embargo period for direct descendants  to obtain uncertified copies of the records of their grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.

• Increasing the fee for each certificate from $22 to $95

• Removes the requirements to maintain birth and death indexes

*when the individual(s) born or married are known to be deceased 

To access the full text of the proposed changes and the DOH's memorandum of support visit Proposed Legislation and Justification.

Note that New York City is a different vital records jurisdiction and those records are handled separately.

Immediate Action Needed: What Can You Do?

The deadline to provide testimony has passed. New Yorkers can still reach out to their State Senators, Assembly Members and the Governor, instructions below. Tell the NYS Legislature and the Governor to expand access to vital records and to reject the changes proposed under "Part U" of the FY 2026 Health and Mental Hygiene Article VII Legislation. 

Any revisions to the law should:

1. ⁠⁠Mandate the timely issuance of uncertified copies of vital records for research purposes.⁠

2. Require public access to vital records indexes

3. Entitle descendants and other relatives to certified copies of all vital records

4. ⁠Limit fees for record access to reasonable levels

5. Provide a pathway for digitization and publication of records

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) has published their open letter to the New York State Legislature, outlining the significant flaws in the proposed legislation and BVR's attitude towards the genealogy community.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) has created a landing page with key details about this issue, including additional action steps. 

Explore this website to learn more about the NYS Bureau of Vital Records ("BVR") through our detailed pages: Vital Records Overview, Current State of Affairs, including details on the genealogy record backlog, Records Digitization efforts, Records Management concerns from the State Inspector General along with complaints from the public, and the 2024 story of BVR's Killing Bipartisan Bills. 

Comment Starters

Below is a set of potential prompts or “comment starters” that genealogists can use to write letters or emails to their legislators, drawing on the key points of the proposal. Please adapt, expand, or personalize this content as you see fit; in fact, the more personal your correspondence is, the better.

1. “I am writing to express my deep concern about the proposed embargo periods (125 years for birth, 100 for marriage, 75 for death) and how they far exceed national and international norms…”

2. “As a professional genealogist, I rely on timely access to vital records to serve clients who wish to understand their heritage, health history, and legal claims…”

3. “Raising genealogy fees to nearly five times the national average not only discourages family history research—it risks cutting off small businesses from a crucial source of income…”

4. “Researchers like me need these records to help families settle estates, pursue dual citizenship, and uncover critical medical information about inherited conditions…”

5. “New York’s current backlog—tens of thousands of unprocessed requests—demonstrates the urgent need for more efficient access, not further restrictions…”

6. “Genealogy requests make up only a small percentage of the total requests received by the Bureau of Vital Records, yet they face some of the longest wait times…”

7. “The proposed law eliminates mandatory indexing of vital records, which is crucial for verifying identities and preventing fraud, contradicting claims that this helps reduce administrative burdens…”

8. “Genealogists are small-business owners who contribute to our state’s economy. We depend on these records to meet the needs of our clients efficiently…”

9. “In nearly every other U.S. state, close relatives and descendants can legally access certified copies of vital records—why should New York remain an outlier?”

10. “Vital records form the cornerstone of cultural, demographic, and medical research; restricting them so severely will harm students, scholars, and family historians alike…”

11. “Instead of imposing excessive fees and long embargo periods, New York should modernize it's vital records by transferring older records to the State Archives and making them publicly accessible…”

Frequent Questions about New York Vital Records

When did vital records begin in New York State?

• Later than most of the Northeast. Statewide registration was in effect for about three years around 1850, but was suspended quickly.  Proper statewide registration did not begin for either births, marriages, or deaths until 1881.  Occasionally cities had records that begin a few decades earlier. 

How are New York State vital records filed? 

• New York State has more than 1,300 registrars at the city, town and county levels, that record births, marriages and death on behalf of New York State. When an event is registered, the registrar sends a copy to the NYS Department of Health's (DOH) Bureau of Vital Records (BVR).  

How can I get a vital record from NYS while the current law is still in effect? 

• BVR has essentially refused to honor genealogy requests since 2020.  They have a backlog of over 10,000 genealogy requests for which members of the public have paid at least $22 for each. The only way to get a record, regardless of potential legislative changes, is to request it from the local municipality of issuance. 

• RTR has published the microfiche birth, marriage, and death indexes that date back to 1881. These indexes provide the specific town in which an event was registered.

Is the local record identical to the one at the State?

• Not necessarily. Towns often recorded summaries of each certificate until about 1913. It is rare for a town to have a full certificate earlier than that. Most town kept abbreviated copies of marriage licenses well into the 1900s, and some towns don't even maintain a copy of the full license for modern marriages. 

But I thought New York published their vital records online?

• New York City and New York State are separate vital records jurisdictions (of 57 nationwide).  New York City operates entirely within a different statutory framework, and is not impacted by this proposal. However in 2022, the New York City Municipal Archives did publish most of their historical vital records online. 

• Queens, Bronx, and Richmond Counties only became part of New York City in 1898. Although the Municipal Archives has the locally issued ledger of these events, BVR is the only entity that has the full certificates. Anecdotal evidence exists that BVR is refusing to issue these certificates at all, purporting that they are "New York City's records."