Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

TEXAS BIRTH AND DEATH INDEXES ON INTERNET

 Sponsored by the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics, Texas Birth and Death Indexes are now available on the Bureau's Internet website at http://tdh.state.tx.us/bvs/registra/index.htm

 Historically, the recording of Texas birth and death records on the state level began in 1903. It was in the 1920's or later, however,  before most of the state's county registrars were maintaining vital records in the manner prescribed by law. In many counties births and deaths were registered incompletely, or, not at all.

 Birth records took on an even greater importance when the Social Security Administration was created in the mid 1930's. To enroll for Social Security benefits, one had to have a birth certificate. "Delayed birth certificates" could be obtained by anyone, regardless of place of birth,  in the county in which they resided. Little known, these records were maintained by county clerks and by the State, usually, in registers separate from the  chronological births records. It is unclear and doubtful indexes of these records are available through the Internet website.

 A Bill in the state legislature in 1989 closed public access to birth records for 50 years and death records for 25 years. The law made no mention to indexes of  birth and death records. In the Spring of 1999 an attempt by the legislature to close the indexes to the public was thwarted by an uprising of protest from genealogists and concerned citizens.

 There are two types of  birth and death indexes. The first is a Summary index and the other is a General index. For privacy purposes the Summary index is being treated by the Bureau as an open record as it contains no identifying information, such as the father's name or the mother's maiden name. The General Index is considered a closed record assuming it contains identifying information. If the year of the General index is past the period covered by the 50 or 25 year privacy period it "might" be considered an open record.

 Information on the Summary birth index includes the registrant's last name, first name and middle name, if any, plus the person's sex, date and county of birth. Likewise, the Summary death index includes the decedent's last name, first name and middle name, if any, plus the decedent's sex, date and county of death.

 The General birth index includes the registrant's last name, first name and middle name, if any, plus the person's sex, date and county of birth. It may, also, include the name of the father and the maiden name of the mother. The General death index includes the decedent's last name, first name and middle name, if any, plus the decedent's sex, date and county of death. It may , also, include the decedent's social security number, marital status and name of spouse.

 Birth indexes from 1903 to 1925 and death indexes 1903 to 1963 are available only on microfiche. Birth indexes on the Internet cover the years 1926 to 1995 and death indexes cover the years 1964 to 1998. In addition to the Internet the indexes are available for purchase on microfiche or CD-ROM on a year by year basis. Microfiche sells for $10 the first year and $5 each additional year. CD-ROMs sell for $37 per year, plus $10 for the CD-ROM.

  While the birth and death indexes are freely available over the Internet they are not freely accessible. The WebPages was not created with genealogists or the person looking for one record in mind. The indexes are compressed in very large files. Rather than incorporating a search engine for retrieval, indexes are arranged in very large downloadable files. Each file contains one index file for each year.

 Laudably, an effort has begun by the energetic members of the Texas GenWeb to create searchable Internet birth and death index databases for each Texas county GenWeb.

MINI-COURSE FOR LIBRARIANS

 attending the ALA (American Librarian Association) Conference in Chicago may be interested in the RUSA pre-conference program, "Reference Services For Genealogists: A Mini Course for Librarians." The course will be held on Friday July 7 from  8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

 The course will be hosted by ALA's Genealogy Chairman Tom Kemp,  author of an informative new Internet source guide "The Genealogist's Virtual Library: Full-text Books on the World Wide Web".

 After completing the course, attendees will be ready for genealogical questions from their patrons. They will know genealogical sources within and beyond their collection and know effective strategies to instruct patrons in family history searches.

  For more information call 1-800-545-2433 ext. 4398 or refer to the registration form in the February issue of "American Libraries".

NEWS FROM THE BOOKSHELF

 IMMIGRANTS TO PENNSYLVANIA 1600's- 1800's  is a Family Archive CD-ROM containing information which originally appeared in ten volumes of books on Pennsylvania published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. It is available for $33.49, postpaid, from Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

  Compiled from passenger lists, records of indenture, oaths of allegiance, and studies of immigration of Quakers, Germans and other Europeans from all over the British Isles and countries of Europe. The fully searchable CD-ROM includes names and details of  some of  the most important works on the immigration into Pennsylvania.