Please help us to Keep South Dakota researchable................
Hearing on Bill 41 will be held on Monday, January 24th , 2005 in committee at the State
Capitol Building.
Phyllis Knutson plans on driving up Monday morning if anyone wishes to drive up with her.
Suggest that all of you who have not e-mailed Tom Dempster, do so before the hearing. As a
reminder, the following is the letter sent out previously.
Senate Bill 41, proposed by the Department of Health, has just been introduced into the
Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. This bill would eliminate access to South
Dakota death, marriage, divorce, dissolution of marriage, and annulment records until 50
years have elapsed from the date of occurrence. Currently, access is easy at the county
level to these public records. (Birth records access was restricted a few years ago by the
legislature to 100 years after the occurrence.)
We can all agree that state government officials should have public hearings or make an
effort to conduct discussions with a broad range of citizens who will be impacted by new
regulations and laws before bills are introduced in the legislature. In this case, no
effort has been made by health department staff to seek Sioux Valley Genealogical Society
members� opinions and concerns about the ramifications of the proposed restrictions on
genealogical research. Nor has any effort been made to gather information from groups of
genealogists around the state that would help in crafting a reasonable bill that will
protect the citizenry without needlessly limiting genealogical research capabilities.
If it is truly necessary to place these extreme limitations on records access, it would be
easy for Health Department staff to explain this in a meeting with those of us seriously
impeded by this action. If it is not
necessary for the restrictions to be so stringent, then the law should be less
restrictive. A little time to educate each other about our needs would be useful in
crafting good legislation.
If you would like to help stop this bill until the Health Department sets up the necessary
public meetings to hear the concerns of genealogists and other members of the public,
please log onto the SD state legislature site,
http://legis.state.sd.us/index.cfm, go to
Current session, Members, find Tom Dempster (chairman of the committee), click on his
name, and either phone him or e-mail him, asking that this bill be tabled until citizen
input is sought. Or check the list of members of the Senate Health and Human Services
Committee, available at the website, and e-mail or phone them.
You will find a copy of the bill (SB 41) at the website as well. There are some features
that would be beneficial to genealogists. And the Health Department website has a new area
for genealogy research. Check it out so your comments will not be entirely negative when
you contact your legislator.
Contact members of the committee immediately, as Senate Bill 41 will be heard in the
committee very soon.
Sincerely,
For the Board
Rosemary Draeger
President
Sioux Valley Genealogical Society
Claire M. Grant
SVGS board Member
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