Class-Vital Records

In class last Saturday we discussed vital records. What are vital records? They are records that were created because of a life event that occurred. Vital records include birth, marriage, and death certificates and even divorce records.

Where can we locate these records? Church records, cemeteries and newspapers are a few ideas to help us with our research. Many online sites, town and county records are other ideas to look into.

This lesson taught us how to begin looking for these records and how every search will be unique. Each search will depend first on what we already know and this will start us on the path to our next discovery. Each vital record has it's own discrete information that will be revealed, so depending what information we find on a given record, that information will guide us through to the next step.

The instructor tested us on direct and indirect evidence with these records. Later on we also were reminded of primary or secondary information. It was emphasized that we must locate original copies!

I wish I realized earlier on not to only take pictures of tombstones and headstones but to also see what records the cemetery carries. They may maintain sexton records along with cemetery deed and plat books. There may be records including burial permits, grave openings and re locations. How many records have I overlooked this far? Oh, maybe I'd rather not think about that right now...

Again I took a lot of notes and with the addition of our class handout, we were informed of many directions to research. Instructions on seeking these vital records was most informative. Seeing sample records showed us the important information we can learn from any given record.

This class sounds like it was basics, but oh no! I again have pages of notes and left with the desire to spend the next 24 hours researching! I certainly hope my notes are clear, by the time I get back to them they had better make sense and get me fired up like the instructor did! I have to admit that the last two weeks have been whoppers for me, and I have not had the time to research or work on any of my homework. (very sad face)

I do hope the next week or two I can get caught up again, there should be more free time to do so. It is most important for me to work with these new bits of information while they are fresh in my mind!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you success in all of your genealogical treasure hunts!

Msteri

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