Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 46 - Return and Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths
Section 12 - Certified Copies of Birth Certificates and Death Records; Transmission to Parents or Next of Kin; Exceptions

Section 12. Except as hereinafter provided, the clerk of a city or town shall forthwith make a certified copy of the record of each birth and death recorded during the preceding month, if the parents of the child born were at the time of said birth residents of any other city or town in the commonwealth, or if the deceased at the time of his death was a resident of any other city or town aforesaid or was a war veteran and was buried in any other city or town aforesaid, and transmit such certified copy to the clerk of the city or town where such parents or deceased person were so resident, setting forth the name of the street and number of the house, if any, where such parents or deceased person so resided and, in the case of a deceased war veteran as aforesaid, to the clerk of the city or town where he was buried, setting forth the cemetery or other place of burial. No birth record of a child born out of wedlock or of a child of abnormal sex shall be so transmitted to any other city or town except with the written authorization of the natural mother at the time of the birth.

Structure Massachusetts General Laws