[Genealib] FS-Labs adds Michigan, West Virginia, Germany & Mexico - Vital & Baptismal Records

[Susan Scouras]

The West Virginia records are accessible as the West Virginia Vital
Research Records database on the West Virginia Archives and History Web
site, http://www.wvculture.org/history (direct link:
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx) and include state death
records for 1917 (inception) through 1957 (one more year will be added
each January).  The other records are county birth, death and marriage
records, currently 16 counties available.  There are no plans to add any
state birth or delayed birth records.  Birth records are held back 100
years, marriage and death 50 years.  

While the availability of so many records in a free, online searchable
database is indeed a great thing, and WVVRR is the most used portion of
our Web site, there are some drawbacks:

Only the birth records for the first six counties go up through
1930--subsequent counties added or to be added will observe the 100 year
retention policy.  

Read the linked article on the West Virginia Vital Research Records
homepage for a full description of what is and is not available online
and how to make best use of the database search engine, etc.

Images appear oversize on your monitor, requiring user to scroll up and
down and side to side to see the entire document, but images will print
out as 8 1/2 by 11.  For state certificates, this is great.  For county
records, particularly those that were filmed two pages at a time, be
aware that many of the county records do not print out a readable image.

For county records, book and page number are not identified.

For an overview of West Virginia birth, death and marriage records, read
articles in the following issues of West Virginia Archives and History
News:
Births:  http://www.wvculture.org/history/ahnews/1007news.pdf
Deaths:  http://www.wvculture.org/history/ahnews/0907news.pdf
Marriages:  http://www.wvculture.org/history/ahnews/1107news.pdf

The Quick Guides that accompanied these articles provide a summary of
records available and where to locate them.  To see the Quick Guides
only, see Staff Research Guides at
http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvsamenu.html.  These have been
formatted to be printable as one-page handouts.  

I hope your West Virginia researchers find this information helpful.

Susan Scouras
Librarian
WV Archives and History Library
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV  25305-0300
(304) 558-0230, Ext. 742
 


-----Original Message-----
From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of Tom Kemp
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 11:30 AM
To: Librarians Serving Genealogists
Subject: [Genealib] FS-Labs adds Michigan, West Virginia,Germany &
Mexico - Vital & Baptismal Records


FYI:
FamilySearchLabs has added:

MICHIGAN
Michigan Birth Records 1867-1902 - Complete - includes digital images of
the original documents Michigan Death Records 1867 to 1897 - Complete -
includes digital images of the original documents

WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia Births 1853-1930 - 36% complete - includes digital images
of the original documents West Virginia Marriages 1853-1970 - 36%
complete - includes digital images of the original documents West
Virginia Deaths 1853-1970 - 50% complete - includes digital images of
the original documents

GERMANY and MEXICO
German & Mexican baptismal & marriage registers for 1700-1900. These two
resources are text only and give the citation for the original document
but not the digital page images.

See my blog post at:
http://blog.genealogybank.com/2008/05/more-birth-marriage-death-records-
go.html

Tom
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