I have long suspected that VitalChek was quite evil.

[lostnfound]

My hobby of tracing my family roots sometimes necessitates ordering a birth or death certificate from one county or another. Many of the county websites now route you to "Vitalchek". The process previously was intrusive, but now it is surreal. It is asking me not only for my driver's license number and credit card (marginally understandable since I needed to pay for it), but then there is a statement that "Vitalchek supports government efforts to verify identity" and it proceeded a stunning number of multiple-choice questions about what cities I have lived in previously, former addresses (yes, it listed one of my former addresses), what mortgage company I used for my previous home loan, etc.

I am blown away. They are clearly compiling the mother of all databases. UFB.

Disgusting fascists.
Obviously, that root of the family tree is going to remain unexplored for a while.

[LiberalFighter]

1. They are part of ChoicePoint... Seems to me that they have had data loss a few times

[Cooley Hurd]

3. ChoicePoint? That figures...

:grr:

[tom_paine]

6. data loss = Bushie illegal information thefts of citizens for Nazi-like tracking purposes

Notice how they all came in a little spate, and between them all, covered a vast portion of the American People with their "stolen" records.

Records of ALL veterans for the past 30 years, was one, if I remember correctly.

The Bushies now have what they want. Access to all the data about all Americans (especially those pesky veterans who might be more likely to stand up to the Bushies when they come for their Final Solutions to the Liberal Problem, whatever those turn out to be) with a free hand and no chance of being caught "illegally" (yes, yes, I know, if Loyal Bushies want to do it, it becomes legal instantly) tapping into these records that they have now stolen.

I would say the chance of this being the case (or something similar in principle) is as high as 90%, since Amerika is now mid-way through it's transition to Evil Totalitarian State mentally structured (we can only hope the violence remains their one key different characteristic) and the individual events and transitions are now coming faster, more furiously, and more direct intheir pursuit of the Total Information Awareness goal.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. In my genealogical research, I've never used VitalChek...

...and I doubt I ever will. What does YOUR personal info have to do with the birth/death records of one's relatives???? Thanks for the heads-up! BTW - you might want to cross-post this in the Ancestry Genealogy forum as well.:thumbsup:

[Bitwit1234]

4. Sometimes it is better to wait longer and order direct

Maryland and some other states have a data base where you can search for the death certificate up to certain years, 1944 for the counties and 1971 for Baltimore City. You find the person and print out the request. Send away with 12 for a photo copy or 25 for a certified copy. If you are just doing genealogy, 12 dollars and a photo copy is good enough.

Ohio and Missouri also have this way of ordering. I think one of those states has the same thing as West Virginia. You put the name in a search engine, and if the died, were born or married there you can print a copy of the document right off the screen.

I accidental deleted Ohio and Missouri but I bet you can find them by googling. But I do have Maryland and WVA sites if you want them. They are invaluable for research. I have found the name of my great grandmother on my father's side. Printed out copies of my great great grandmother and a lot of her children from West Virginia. You need no personal information for Maryland except your name and address.

[Libby2]

5. I've stopped using them.

I will send directly to the state/county involved.