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On January 12, 1852, the Pennsylvania Legislature enacted its first statewide law requiring the registration of vital records.  As stated in the preamble, the law was prompted by a need to document births, deaths and marriages that could not be substantiated for legal cases, whereby “the rights of many have been sacrificed, and great wrongs done” as well as to validate “important truths, deeply affecting the physical welfare of mankind” that could be drawn from the recording of these records.  The law, however well intentioned, was short lived.  The Registration Act of 1852 was repealed on January 31, 1855, only 3 years after its inception.  During those three years, only a few births, deaths and marriages were recorded within the county.    This dearth of records may be an indication of a lack of compliance with the law, which may have lead to its eventual repeal.