Pennsylvania § 15523 - Compilation of war records.

§ 15523. Compilation of war records.

(a) Records required.--The county commissioners are authorized and directed, at the expense of the county, to compile a record of the interment sites within the county of deceased servicepersons and all other veterans. Records, so far as practicable, shall indicate the:

(1) name of each deceased serviceperson;

(2) service in which the individual was engaged;

(3) number of the regiment, company or command in which the individual served;

(4) individual's rank and period of service;

(5) name and location of the cemetery or other place in which the individual's body is interred; and

(6) location of the deceased individual's grave and the character of headstone or other marker, if any, at the grave.

(b) Title of record.--The record shall be known as the Veterans' Grave Registration Record of ........................ County, and shall be a public record, open to inspection during business hours.

(c) Record blanks.--The county commissioners shall ensure that record blanks are prepared, according to forms prescribed by the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, whereby the information required for the record may be transmitted to the county commissioners upon request.

(d) Certificate required.--Every individual, firm, association or corporation, including a municipal corporation, owning or controlling a cemetery or interment site in this Commonwealth which inters bodies of deceased servicepersons shall file with the director of veterans' affairs of the county in which the cemetery is located a certificate, on the record blanks provided by the county commissioners, of the facts required for the record if the facts are within the knowledge of the individual, firm, association or corporation or a designated agent.

(e) Offense.--The county commissioners shall ensure that record blanks are distributed to an individual, firm, association or corporation, as the county commissioners deem advisable, with the request that the information required under this section be transmitted to the county. An individual, firm, association or corporation, except municipal corporations, that refuses or neglects to fill out and transmit to the county commissioners the blanks or forms within six months after receipt of the blanks or forms commits a summary offense and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine of $100.

(f) Location of interment sites.--For the purpose of locating the interment sites of individuals who have served in the armed forces of the United States during a war or armed conflict in which the United States was engaged, any veterans' organization listed in section 15521(a) (relating to appropriations to veterans' organizations for expenses of Memorial Day, Veterans' Day, Flag Day and Independence Day) or recognized by the county may, without expense to the county, collect the required data and prepare and file certificates with the county commissioners, including the information required under this section.

(g) Written notice.--Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, any organization that accepts remains under section 506.2 of the act of June 29, 1953 (P.L.304, No.66), known as the Vital Statistics Law of 1953, which allows certain veterans' service organizations to claim the remains of certain deceased veterans, shall give written notice of the location and manner of the final disposition of the remains to the director of veterans' affairs of the county in which the final disposition of the remains is made.