Saturday, October 3, 2009

Center for Disease Control Points the Way to Vital Records

If you have ever wondered where to write for a state's collection of vital records, or how much it will cost, or what records are kept for what periods of time, this website if for you!

The Center for Disease Control provides hot links for each state that will provide the above information and more. You can get some of the same information from The Red Book in the ready reference section in the library, of course. But that is there and you are most likely at home. On top of that, print resources tend to go out of date whereas on-line resources of this nature tend to be current.

From the main page you simply click on the state of interest (in some cases even the city is listed) and then you are shown the important information for getting records from that state regarding birth, death, marriage, and divorce. Not only are you given where to write and the cost, but also what dates they have records for and other pertinent comments that might be helpful. [Remember, this is STATE level information...counties typically started saving vital records before the state did.]

At the top of the main screen is an alphabetic index and is intriguing. Not all of the links apply to genealogy, but its the type of index that you love to nose around in.

Check it out at <http://cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm>

No comments: