FYI: Ordering Certified 1906 - Present Death Certificates

FYI: Ordering Certified 1906 - Present

Birth & Death Certificates

Currently, the 1906 to 1944 non-certified death certificates are online at ancestry.com. There may be a reason you would need to order a certified death certificate. One would be if the person died recently or after 1944. November is the projected rollout by ancestry.com for the last set of the of Pennsylvania State Death Certificates 1945 through 1963. If you need a post 1963 death certificate. Your only option is to order a certified copy.

*Fee Increase Alert: NOTE THE FEE INCREASE IS FOR BIRTH CERTIFCATES

According to Act 28 of 2014, starting July 1, 2014, the cost of each certified copy of the birth certificate will increase from $10.00 to $20.00. The additional $10 will be used by the Department of Public Welfare to help fund and provide for children’s advocacy centers as well as child abuse prevention training.

Applications received with a post mark after June 30, 2014 and without the proper fee will be returned unprocessed.

First copies for new births will still be offered free of charges and fees waived for individuals who served or are currently serving in the Arm Forces or their dependent

Order Online  thru Vital Check, the authorized service provider for the Pennsylvania Department of Health

Pennsylvania Department of Health does not accept credit cards or online orders; however, for your convenience, you can process online request through an independent company that we have partnered with to provide you this service; VitalChek Network, Inc.  An additional fee is charged by VitalChek for using this service. All major credit cards are accepted including American Express®, Discover®, Mastercard® or Visa®.

VitalChek is the only approved vendor the Pennsylvania Department of Health has authorized to process online orders for Pennsylvania birth or death certificates.  If you use another Internet vendor, you will pay an additional fee to that vendor without receiving any additional services.  The Pennsylvania Department of Health has no control over what services and fees other Internet vendors offer and charge, nor can we guarantee the confidentiality of any vital record data provided to vendors other than Vitalchek.

If you have ordered through another Internet vendor and have experienced a problem in obtaining the record ordered, you will need to contact that vendor directly. If you believe an Internet vendor's website provides inaccurate information about service or fees, you may wish to consider reporting to the consumer protection office in the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office OR the consumer protection agency in the state where you reside or the vendor is located.

Birth:  $20 per certified copy Typical processing time for certified copies of birth certificates with a date of birth of 1967 to present is ten to fifteen business days (from the date the order is received) which does not include delivery time.  For certified copies of birth with a date of birth prior to 1967, please allow twenty-five to thirty days for processing time, excluding delivery time. The status of a request cannot be verified unless it has been a minimum of two business days from the date request has been submitted.

Order Birth by Mail

Who May Request a Birth Certificate?

Only certain people can request a birth certificate. You must be:

Person named on the birth certificate, who is 18 years of age or older (if under 18, immediate family member must apply) 
Legal representative
Husband / wife
Parent / step-parent*
Brother / sister / half-brother / half-sister
Son / daughter / stepson* / stepdaughter*
Grandparent / great grandparent (specify maternal or paternal)
Grandchild / great grandchild Power of Attorney (for person named on birth certificate or immediate family member listed above)

If the person named on the birth certificate is deceased, a family member who is not an immediate family member must submit a copy of the death certificate to be eligible to receive a certified copy of the birth certificate.

What if the Year of Birth is Unknown?
An applicant may request a multi year birth search .

You may access Pennsylvania birth and death indices to search for birth records from 1906 through 1908 and death records from 1906 through 1963. The original birth and death records for these years are located at the Pennsylvania State Archives . Information on searching the indices is available on the Public Records page.

*A step-parent or step-child is required to submit parents' marriage record supporting their relationship.

 

Order Death Online

Death: $9 per certified copy plus $10.00 service fee per transaction Typical processing time for certified copies of death certificates is twenty to thirty business days (from the date the order is received) which does not include delivery time.  Please note:   The registration process for recent deaths can take up to thirty business days.  If you apply for a certified copy of death that recently occurred, please allow an additional thirty business days to complete the registration process and issue the certified copy of death. The status of a request cannot be verified unless it has been a minimum of two business days from the date request has been submitted

Order Death by Mail

Who may request a Certified Death Certificate?

Only certain people can request a death certificate. You must be:
Legal representative of decedent's estate
Immediate family member
Extended family member who indicates a direct relationship to the decedent Power of Attorney (Please note that a Power of Attorney document is no longer valid upon the death of the individual)

An applicant may request a multi-year death search .

You may access Pennsylvania birth and death indices to search for birth records from 1906 through 1908 and death records from 1906 through 1963. The original birth and death records for these years are located at the Pennsylvania State Archives . Information on searching the indices is available on the Public Records page.

Public Records 
Birth Indices Death Indices

Several years of indices (1920-1924 deaths and 1930-1951 deaths) are listed according to the Russell Soundex method of indexing. 
*Effective July 1, 2013, The Division of Vital Records will no longer accept applications for non-certified copies of birth and death records. Non certified copies of birth and death certificates will be processed by the Pennsylvania State Archives as defined by the procedure on their website. Non-certified copies of birth certificates are available for the years 1906 - 1908 and of death certificates for the years 1906-1963.  

The Division of Vital Records will continue to issue certified copies of birth and death records from 1906 to the present. 

To apply for a certified copy of a birth or death certificate from The Division of Vital Records, you may download the Application for Certified Copy of Birth Certificate or Application for Multi-Year Search of Death.

Mail the completed application and payment to:

Division of Vital Records
ATTN: Public Records
P.O. Box 1528
New Castle, PA 16103

There is a $20.00 fee for each certified copy of birth certificates and a $9.00 fee for each certified copy of death certificates ordered. Check or money order should be made payable to Vital Records. 

On December 15, 2011, Governor Tom Corbett approved Senate Bill 361.

This bill amends the Act of June 29, 1953 (P.L. 304, No. 66), known as the Vital Statistics Law of 1953, to provide for public access to certain birth and death certificates after a fixed amount of time has passed. This legislation provides that such documents become public records 105 years after the date of birth or 50 years after the date of death.


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