Welcome (or welcome back) to Mountain Roots.
Today I am going to write about my favorite vital records site. Anyone care to guess what it is?
It is a vital (excuse the pun) resource for anyone looking up family history information in West Virginia. And the best thing about it is it's free!
I am talking about the West Virginia Vital Records Search Page maintained by West Virginia Archives and History. I am almost always using it. I am amazed at what I can find there and am equally amazed that the fine folks in our State government provide it to everyone.
The site is basically a database of births, marriages, and deaths in West Virginia. Each record in the database is linked to an image. For births, the image is usually a whole page from the county's birth record book. Death record's images are usually from the county's death record book. Frequently there is an image of the actual death certificate as well. In a lot of cases, the older marriage records in some counties are the "old timey" full or half page marriage record.
If you have as many West Virginia ancestors as I do it is virtually one-stop shopping. (Did I mention the site is free?)
Once you have found the record you are looking for, you can save the image to your computer. Don't forget to document the search terms you used and the URL of the image, so you can look them up later. I have a folder on my computer that is full of ancestor's records I have not added to my tree or documented fully yet.
There are a couple of issues with this site. I don't consider them major issues, but I think you should know what they are anyway.
Almost all of the images are formatted in such a way that when you try to print them out, the image is squished and distorted. I have not found this a big issue because I am more interested with the information contained in the images and transcribing the information. The images on your screen will be large and detailed.
The other issue is that the database is not always accurate. But you will find this issue in just about any genealogical database. The issue comes down to trying to decipher the old and sometimes faded handwritten records into names, dates, and places. But if you are really into genealogy, this is the kind of thing you love. Trying to puzzle out who, where, and when is a lot of fun.
Remember, this site does not list all births, marriages, and deaths in West Virginia. For privacy reasons, they have limited the years in their database. The cut-off years are different for births, marriages, and deaths. There is also some difference in what years each county covers. See the site for a listing of what records are available for what counties in what years.
For the records it does contain, it sure beats a trip to multiple county courthouses. If you need help with this site or some tips, please let me know, I would be happy to help.
Let me know what you think of the site!
1 comment:
I have used this link for over a year now, and love it. Wish i could get more than i do at times. But i do understand the privacy etc. It was able to answer many of my questions. I copy and then paste the document in a program on my computer so i can print and have a copy of it for the family reunion makes good conversation.
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