The Town Clerk serves as the Registrar of Vital Statistics for the Town of South Kingstown. All records associated with marriages, civil unions and deaths that occur in the Town of South Kingstown are filed, indexed, maintained and stored in this office. The original records are sent to the State Department of Health’s Division of Vital Statistics. Birth records are sent directly to the State Department of Health’s Division of Vital Statistics by all the hospitals in the state. This office can access Rhode Island birth records back to 1960 via an internet connection for issuance of those records. We also process deaths, marriages and civil unions that occur elsewhere in the state for Town residents. This office issues marriage and civil union licenses for both residents and non-residents wishing to marry or unite within the Town of South Kingstown.

Who can Apply/Obtain Vital Records

Vital records are confidential. Therefore, only those individuals who have what is called a "Direct and Tangible Interest" in the records may have access to records. The following individuals and/or groups make-up those having direct and tangible interest:

• The person named on the certificate, a member of his/her immediate family, his guardian, or an authorized agent of these individuals; or
• Attorneys-at-law, title examiners, or members of legally incorporated genealogical societies, in the conduct of their official duties; or
• Persons requiring information for the determination or protection of a personal or property right; or
• A person who has been granted a court order instructing the registrar to provide disclosure

Note: A direct and tangible interest shall not be demonstrated by firms, agencies, or individuals requesting information to be used for commercial purposes.

Rhode Island General Legislation Section 23-3-28

§ 23-3-28 Penalties

1. 1. Any person who willfully and knowingly makes any false statement in a report, record, or certificate required to be filed under this chapter, or in an application for an amendment of those, or who willfully and knowingly supplies false information intending that this false information be used in the preparation of any report, record, or certificate, or amendment; or
   2. Any person who without lawful authority and with the intent to deceive, makes, alters, amends, or mutilates any report, record, or certificate required to be filed under this chapter or a certified copy of any report, record, or certificate; or
   3. Any person who willfully and knowingly uses or attempts to use, or furnish to another for use, for any purpose of deception, any certificate, record, report, or certified copy thereof so made, altered, amended, or mutilated; or
   4. Any person who with the intention to deceive willfully uses or attempts to use any certificate of birth or certified copy of a record of birth knowing that the certificate or certified copy was issued upon a record which is false in whole or in part or which relates to the birth of another person; or
   5. Any person who willfully and knowingly furnishes a certificate of birth or a certified copy of a record of birth with the intention that it be used by a person other than the person to whom the record of birth relates;
      Shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
2. 1. Any person who knowingly transports and accepts for transportation, interment, or other disposition a dead body without an accompanying permit as provided in this chapter; or
   2. Any person who refuses to provide information required by this chapter; or
   3. Any person who willfully neglects or violates any of the provisions of this chapter or refuses to perform any of the duties imposed upon him by this chapter;
      Shall be punished by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than one hundred dollars ($100) or be imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or by both fine and imprisonment.