February 16, 22

NEWS / Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records building suffers severe flooding

The building housing the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics has suffered severe flooding due to a ruptured HVAC water line. Over 3,000 volumes of documents have been damaged, with extensive flooding in the record vaults area, staff rooms, the public counter, and the basement storage area, the Boston Herald Reports. The rupture occurred on February 6, and the building will likely remain closed to the public until next Monday, February 21. It is too early to say if the 1.65 million birth and records have been permanently damaged. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts hired a professional document restoration vendor to dry the documents in an effort to prevent deterioration and mold growth. The flooding is likely to cause delays in applications for certified copies of birth, marriage, and death records. The Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records is located in the Corcoran Jennison Building in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. In the last five years, the Administration of Governor Charlie Baker has been attempting to digitize vital records to eliminate the Registry’s reliance on paper records. At the same time, Governor Baker has sought to restrict access to vital records only to those personally authorized by the vital record holders (or their parents/guardians).