TITLE I
THE STATE AND ITS GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER 5-C
VITAL RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

Section 5-C:1

    5-C:1 Definitions. –
I. "Advanced practice registered nurse" or "APRN"means a registered nurse currently licensed by the New Hampshire board of nursing under RSA 326-B:18.
I-a. "Ancestry" means the nationality, lineage, or country in which the person or his or her ancestors were born before their arrival in what is now the United States, and includes American Indians and native Alaskans, and reflects what the person considers himself or herself to be and is not based on percentages of ancestry.
II. "Attendant" means a person who is present during the process of delivering a child.
III. "Attending physician", "APRN", or "physician associate" means that physician, APRN, or physician associate if any, who treated the patient during his or her last sickness.
IV. "Certifier" means the person attesting to the facts of a vital record event.
V. "Certifying physician", "APRN", or "physician associate" means the physician, APRN, or physician associate who determines and indicates the cause of death.
VI. "City or town of residence" means:
(a) The geographic location where the registrant resides at the time a vital event occurred; or
(b) The mother's usual place of residing, in the case of births and fetal deaths.
VII. "Delayed certificate" means a certificate completed after the statutory time period.
VIII. "Department" means the department of state.
IX. "Director" or "registrar" means the director of vital records administration, who shall also be known as the registrar of vital records.
X. "Division" means the division of vital records administration, department of state.
XI. "Entombment" means temporary disposition of a body.
XII. "Fetal death" means the expulsion or extraction of a product of human conception having completed at least 20 weeks gestation or weighing at least 350 grams and resulting in other than a live birth that is not a purposeful interruption of an intrauterine pregnancy.
XIII. "Final disposition" means the burial, interment, cremation, removal from the state of New Hampshire, or other authorized disposition of a dead body or fetus pursuant to RSA 290:11, II.
XIV. "Foundling" means a live born infant of unknown parentage.
XV. "Immediate family" means:
(a) Persons who are related either by blood or marriage and includes the following: mother; father; son; daughter; brother; sister; husband; wife; grandfather; grandmother; grandson; granddaughter; great-grandchildren; step-parents; step-children; aunts; uncles; nephews; nieces; and
(b) In the case of divorce, legal separation, and civil annulment records, the person's former or separated spouse from a legal separation or a marriage ending in divorce or civil annulment.
XVI. "Institution" means any establishment, either public or private, which provides inpatient medical or surgical care, diagnostic care or treatment, nursing or domiciliary care.
XVII. "Legal representative" means an attorney, physician, funeral director or other representative, who through written authorization from the registrant is acting on behalf of the registrant or his or her family.
XVIII. "Legitimation" means the legal process of establishing the paternity of a child born out of wedlock or whose paternity is being disputed pursuant to RSA 5-C:24 and RSA 460:29.
XIX. "Live birth" means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which, after such expulsion or extraction, breathes, or shows any other evidence of life, such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached.
XX. "Marriage certificate" means the vital record document signed by a wedding officiant following the ceremony that is recorded and filed with the division.
XXI. "Marriage intentions" means an application made with the clerk of a town or city to obtain a marriage license.

[Paragraph XXII effective until September 8, 2026; see also paragraph XXII set out below.]


XXII. "Marriage license" means the vital record document that is completed by the bride and groom and the clerk of the town or city showing that all legal requirements have been met and the couple is eligible to be married.

[Paragraph XXII effective September 8, 2026; see also paragraph XXII set out above.]


XXII. "Marriage license" means the vital record document that is completed by the marriage applicants and the clerk of the town or city showing that all legal requirements have been met and the couple is eligible to be married.
XXIII. "Medical certification" means the providing of the cause of death and other medically related facts or data as related to a death certificate.
XXIV. "Midwife" means a person who practices midwifery in the state of New Hampshire pursuant to RSA 326-D.
XXV. "Natural father" means the biological father of a child.
XXVI. "Next of kin" means "next of kin" as defined in RSA 290:16.
XXVII. "Nurse midwife" means a nurse licensed to practice in the state of New Hampshire and who is certified under the American College of Nurse-Midwives and registered with the New Hampshire Board of Nursing in accordance with RSA 326-B.
XXVIII. "Officiant" means a person with the legal authority to perform a marriage ceremony within the state of New Hampshire pursuant to RSA 457:31, RSA 457:31-a, RSA 457:32, and RSA 457:32-a.
XXIX. "Original informant" with regard to death records, means the individual who submitted the information to create the death registration.
XXIX-a. "Physician associate" means a person licensed as a physician associate under RSA 328-D.
XXX. "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine or osteopathy pursuant to RSA 329.
XXXI. "Pronouncing physician" means the physician who determines that the person is legally dead and who signs the death certificate certifying that the death has occurred at a specified time and date.
XXXII. "Pronouncing registered nurse" means the registered nurse attending at the last sickness who is authorized under the provisions of RSA 290:1-b to pronounce a person dead.
XXXIII. "Safety paper" means unique paper with anti-fraud features that is used by the division and clerks of towns and cities to issue certified copies of vital records.
XXXIV. "State registrar" means the director of the division who is the person appointed by the secretary of state pursuant to RSA 5-C:2 or the director of the division's designated staff.
XXXV. "3-party affidavit of paternity" means the voluntary acknowledgement of fatherhood by the natural father, the mother, and the mother's husband who is not the father, but was the mother's husband at the time of conception, during the pregnancy, or at the time of the child's birth.
XXXVI. "Vital event" means any of the following occurrences:
(a) Birth.
(b) Adoption.
(c) Death.
(d) Fetal death.
(e) Marriage.
(f) Divorce.
(g) Legal separation.
(h) Civil annulment.
XXXVII. "Vital record" means a certificate or report of a vital event.
XXXVIII. "Vital statistics" means the data derived from certificates and reports of vital events.

Source.Source. 2005, 268:1. 2006, 141:1. 2007, 215:1, 2. 2009, 54:4, 5, eff. July 21, 2009. 2015, 140:1, 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2016. 2025, 105:1, eff. June 17, 2025. 2026, 296:1, eff. Sept. 8, 2026.