Death, birth, and marriage certificates delayed after Cook County Clerk’s death
A slowdown at the Cook County Clerk’s Office after the death of Karen Yarbrough on Sunday may affect families trying to close out legal matters.
If you look at an official birth or death certificate from the last few years in Cook County, you’ll likely see Yarbrough’s name embedded in the paper that prints those copies, making them official.
Thus, her passing has not only led to grief but also confusion.
As friends, family and co-workers continue to pay tribute to her life and legacy, issues remain over how the work would get done without her. Funeral Director Mark Giancola first realized there might be an issue on Wednesday when he and others received calls about death certificates with Yarbrough’s name on them.
“Then, when I talked to an employee from the Clerk’s Office, they told me they stopped issuing death certificates yesterday,” Giancola said.
Memorial service for Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough announced
The Clerk’s Office is the official record keeper for death certificates, birth certificates, and marriage licenses for the five million people residing in Cook County. All certified copies have Yarbrough’s name on them, which is fine. But new certificates issued must be switched over to her interim replacement.
New paperwork may not come in until next week, however, slowing down an already painful process.
“What are these poor families going to do?” Giancola asked. “They need that for life insurance, shipping people internationally, property, and other reasons you would need a death certificate, and now you can’t have them right away.”
While families wait, the Cook County Funeral Directors Association issued a statement calling the issue a “temporary interruption” that “will not affect any other facet of funeral services,” including “cremations and burials.”
As far as a timeline is concerned, funeral homes will be informed when those documents become available.
“Many officials have passed away in office, and government goes on,” Giancola said. “I don’t know why in this situation it didn’t happen.”
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Responding to WGN Investigates’ request for comment, a spokesperson with the Cook County Clerk’s Office said they are legally required to change the name of the certified documents and are actively working on doing so. The office added that it is temporarily unable to provide paper copies of birth, death, and marriage certificates, meaning that they are still registering information but cannot provide physical copies.
There is no timeline for when the issue will be resolved.
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