Vital Records Class

Last Friday Cheryl Storton and Cafi Cohen presented a session on Vital Records on the Internet at the Paso Robles Historical Society building. We demonstrated navigation and insider's tricks for finding vital records at: 

• Ancestry.com
• FamilySearch
• DeathIndexes.com
• Linkpendium
• USGenWeb

Remember the situation just 10 years ago? If you could not locate the record on LDS microfilm, getting a vital record out of many counties and states was either impossible or constrained by long waiting periods. That's still true in some cases. Fortunately, however, many counties and states are now making documnent images available instantly for free or nominal costs. Examples? Check out:

• Ohio Death Certificates, 1908-1953 at FamilySearch (be certain to register and login each time you use FamilySearch)
• Historical Cook County, Illinois Vital Records