Vital Record Have Their Limits

We all know what an advantage it is to get our hands on a vital record (birth, marriage, death) from a courthouse or archive. And we also all probably know how frustrating it is to look and look and not be able to find them.

James Tanner in his blog Genealogy’s Star gives some great insight into the evolution of vital records and why we are at times unsuccessful in our search for them. We all know that there was a time when civil authorities did not require the recording of births, marriages, and deaths, but we often do not stop to analyze how those requirements vary according to time and place.

Check out his article at Genealogy's Star: The Vital Record Stumbling Block