1910 NYC Birth Index

Your request has been emailed to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) because that agency is not yet using
the portal to respond to FOIL requests. The details of your request are shown below.
No further information will be available on the OpenRecords portal regarding this
request.

Request Title: Untitled

Request Description: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

I am requesting the 1910 NYC birth index for all 5 boroughs, preferably as high-quality OCR PDF(s), though additional formats are acceptable in lieu of the preferred format. Ancestry.com is currently the only available source for the 1910 birth index, however, the quality of scans they received from The Vitalsearch Company are incredibly low quality and their transcribed database suffers because of how illegible it is.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Corrine DeCiampa

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Requester's Contact Information



Name:
Corrine Deciampa

Title:
Not provided

Organization:
Not provided

Email:
requests@muckrock.com (mailto:requests@muckrock.com)

Phone Number:
Not provided

Fax Number:
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Street Address (line 1):
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Street Address (line 2):
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City:
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State:
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Please contact the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) via email at foil@health.nyc.gov
for any further information. (mailto:foil@health.nyc.gov)

FOIL Control #: 2023FR02148

Dear Corrine Deciampa,

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Law request. It has been assigned the above-noted control number and has been processing. You should receive a response within twenty(20) business days. Please note that as of January 1, 2019, the Department charges the statutorily allowable fee of 25¢ per page for FOIL responses of records maintained in hard copy format only.
All inquiries about the status of your request should be made with the control number noted above.

Thank you,

FOIL Administration

Office of the General Counsel

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - City of New York

42-09 28th St.,CN30, Long Island City, NY 11101

Telephone:347-396-6116 Fax:347-396-6087

Email: recordsaccess@health.nyc.gov | nyc.gov/health<https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/index.page>

sb

Dear Corinne Deciampa:

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) denies your Freedom of Information Law request with the above-referenced control number. The records you have requested are exempt from disclosure pursuant to Public Officers Law § 87(2)(a).

New York State Public Health Law § 4104 exempts New York City from State law with regard to vital records with very few exceptions, none of which apply here. It has been settled for many years that the New York City Health Code, based on the New York City Charter and State law and regulation, is the controlling law on vital records matters in the City. See, e.g., In re Bakers Mutual Ins. Co. of New York, 301 N.Y. 21 (1950). Pursuant to NYC Health Code § 207.11(a), the inspection of vital records or data filed with the department may be granted only if the Commissioner or the Commissioner's designee agree that the requested information is necessary for a proper purpose. Your request is for information that is explicitly prohibited from public disclosure under NYC Health Code § 207.21 until January 31st of the year following 125 years after the dates of birth. Therefore, the records you have requested cannot be considered necessary for a proper purpose. See also Reclaim the Records v. DOHMH, 189 N.Y.S.3d 460, 462 (2023) (Predecessor to §17-169 of the NYC Administrative Code, which authorizes DOHMH to restrict access to certain vital records not necessary for a proper purpose, was added by the state legislature in 1937 and recodified in 1985, and it thus qualifies as a state statute). Accordingly, these records are exempt from disclosure under Public Officers Law § 87(2)(a).

You may file a written appeal of this denial within 30 days of the date of this message. The appeal should be addressed to:
Chari Anhouse, Esq.
Appeals Officer & Associate General Counsel
recordsaccess@health.nyc.gov<mailto:recordsaccess@health.nyc.gov>

The notice of appeal should include the request control number, the date of this denial message, a description of the records that were the subject of the request, the specific legal grounds for your appeal, and the full name and email address of the original requester.

Sincerely,

Bernadette O'Donnell
Records Access Officer / Associate General Counsel
Office of the General Counsel
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - City of New York
42-09 28th St., Long Island City, NY 11101
Email: bodonnell1@health.nyc.gov<mailto:bodonnell1@health.nyc.gov> | nyc.gov/health<https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/index.page>

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