Lou’s View – July 7, 2016
Ask the History Expert
By Lou Bernard
Hello and welcome to “Ask The History Expert,” a new advice column designed to answer your pressing questions about history, research, and all things related! I look forward to answering your questions today. Let’s get to the first one.
Dear History Expert,
So I lost my purse, and I need a copy of my birth certificate to get new ID, including my driver’s license. Do I come to the local library, or the courthouse? Or can I just do it online?
Signed, Desperate
Dear About To Be More Desperate,
That’d be a big no on both. This will vary from state to state, but I’m writing this from Pennsylvania, so that’s what I’m going to stick to. You’re not likely to find birth and death certificates online. The local courthouse may have some, but only if you were born between 1893 and 1905. Most birth and death records are kept at the state level.
Contact the Department of Vital Statistics in New Castle, PA. You may have to pay a fee for the search, and the record-keeping there could be better done by my toddler, if you catch my drift. But that’s where they are. All birth certificates since 1905 are at the state level. And if you were born before 1893, your driver’s license probably should be revoked anyway.
Signed, History Expert
Dear History Expert,
My ex-husband is dating a new woman, and I just know that she’s been in mental hospitals and probably has a disease, too! She denies it, but I know she is lying. The local hospitals won’t give me her file, so I’m asking you, how do I get public information?
Signed, Ex-Wife
Dear Deserves To Be An Ex,
You get public information by asking for it in the right office. But boy, do you need a lesson on what qualifies as public information. Medical records are private, and you have no right to them. Marriage records, obituaries, deeds, wills (after probate), divorce (Such as your own understandable divorce), and naturalization records are all public information. My advice to you is to forget the medical records, go find your own divorce records, reread them, and try to understand why the poor guy left you. Also, get therapy.
Signed, History Expert
Dear History Expert,
I have a friend who is really good at research. I want to get the history of my house, but when I ask him to do it for me, he keeps putting me off. How can I get him to find me my home’s history?
Signed, Wants Information
Dear Find Your Own Information,
I told you to quit calling me at home. Seriously, what you are asking for can become a fairly time-consuming process, and nobody should be asked by a casual acquaintance to do this as a favor….Have you so much as baked your friend a tray of brownies in return? Fortunately, you can learn to do this on your own.
Look at your own deed (I am assuming you still have the deed to your house.) In Pennsylvania, realtors are required to do a title search before a purchase, but I’m going to go ahead and assume you’ve lost that already. On your deed, there will be a “Being Clause.” It will say something like “Being the same property sold in 1969 to….”
At the end of this sentence will be a couple of numbers, like “Book 223 Page 369.” That’s the Book and Deed of the previous owner. Armed with this information, go down to the local courthouse, find the Register and Recorder’s Office, get that book, and turn to that page. That’s the previous deed. Find the Being Clause on that deed, and it will direct you to the deed before that, and so on. This is something you can easily do on your own, since you’re so curious about it.
What’s that? That will take too long? It’s too much trouble for you? Think how your friend feels.
Signed, History Expert
Dear History Expert,
My husband is obsessed with researching history. He loves it, and he’s very good at it. But I never see him anymore! He’s always at work, or out doing research. What can I do?
Signed, Lonely Wife
Dear Wife,
I said I’d be home right after work, dear. And I’ll bring ice cream and a movie.
Signed, History Expert
