Where to Write for Vital Records

Need to know where to write for vital records (births, deaths, marriages, and divorces) for individual states and territories? An excellent source is CDC/National Center for Health Statistics' "Where to Write for Vital Records." See "Favorite Links" for a quick connection.

Genealogy To-Do List

When you are doing family research in one particular area, do you think of things that might need to be done in another? Do you then jump from the task at hand to the one that you just thought about – maybe because it appears to be more interesting than the one you are currently doing? Or do you say to yourself, I’ll do that later and then forget about it?

Getting the most out of your genealogy research requires organization. Failure to organize can result in poor use of your time as well as missed opportunities. Having a Genealogy To-Do List can enhance your genealogy research efforts and should be part of your genealogy research toolkit.

For an interesting article on this subject, check out Darlene Vaillancourt’s article “Managing Genealogy Research – Keep a To-Do List to Organize Your Family Tree Studies.” You can find the article by copying and pasting the following URL into your web browser: <http://genealogical-research-methods.suite101.com/article.cfm/have_a_genealogy_game_plan>

Web Browser Alternative

Do you find that your current web browser is frequently not as responsive to your genealogy research efforts as you would like? Would you like to speed things up? Don't want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Want a new way to browse the web?

You might do well to check out “Google Chrome” -- a relatively new web browser for computers using the Windows operating system (Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2). Release of a Mac version is under development.

For complete information (including a video on the story behind Google Chrome) and “free” download capability, go to <http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html>.

You can still continue use of your current browser(s). If you do download Google Chrome as an alternative (not your primary) browser, you might want to consider making its home page your favorite genealogy website. Just a thought!

“Portable Google Chrome” is available if you want to install on a USB stick.

Might there be more?

When you have success finding an obituary or death notice, do you simply make a copy and then proceed to the next task? Do you stop to consider that what you have found may not be be the complete story?

An obituary appearing in an Ohio newspaper on January 15, 2009 serves as an excellent example of why it can pay dividends to look beyond your initial find. In this particular case, the deceased's daughter arranged for publication of a revised obituary for her mother two weeks later, on January 29. It included eleven (11) names that had been overlooked in the preparation of the January 15 obituary.

Other examples of why you might want to continue your search efforts in the same publication - even on the same date:

• Publication of both a death notice and a special tribute (as might be done for a public official, local celebrity, etc.)
• Publication of both a death notice and an obituary
• Publication of both a death notice and a news item in a "locals" section
• Publication of a followup notice covering the funeral service and burial
• Expression of appreciation by the family for assistance provided following the death

Each of these could contain information not found in the initial find.

There may also be benefits in searching for obituaries and death notices in competing publications. Years ago it was not uncommon to have slightly different content in each publication. That is not so much the case today.