While working on the genealogy of some Kentucky ancestors recently, I came across the Kentucky Vital Records Index from the University of Kentucky. It offers four searches. Two are death index searches, the first for the years 1911-1986 and the second for the year 1987-1992. The other two searches are the Kentucky Marriage Index for 1973-1993 and the Kentucky Divorce Index for 1973-1993.
The first death index can be searched by name, place of death or residence; the second death index by name only. The marriage and divorce indexes can be searched by the man or woman's name or by their combined names.
This index does not provide actual images of the sources. Instead, it gives basic information such as name, date and location. On some searches, you may get a certificate number.
There are a few drawbacks to this genealogy resource.
It searches for an exact match. If the name you are putting in is different than that one listed in the record (which may or may not be the correct spelling), it won't pull it up. You just have to keep putting in spelling variations until you get lucky. According to the notes, it is supposed to be able to search for name variations if you add an asterik to the name. However, I was never able to get results this way.
Places are abbreviated and sometimes misspelled. If you are searching the first death index by location, you have to know the version used in the index or you won't be able to find it.
The search results are limited. It only gives you the first fifty (give or take) of the results found, even if there are more.
Despite these drawbacks, it can be a source of free genealogy information so it's worth giving it a whirl.
0 comments:
Post a Comment