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

TEXAS DIVORCE INDEXES ON INTERNET

 In recent weeks the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics has placed an online index to Texas divorces on the Internet. The indexes cover the years 1968 through 1997 and may be found at http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/bvs/registra/inde x.htm.

  Another website, Rootsweb.com, has the same database with the same information and an easy to use search engine not available on the state website. The Rootsweb website is at: http//userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/divorce/searc h.cgi

 During her Colonial era, when Texas was a part of Spain and Mexico, the Catholic Church had jurisdiction over the dissolution of marriages. Under Catholic law divorce was not allowed and no records for that period were created.

 After independence divorce proceedings in Texas began on the county level in county court. Once approved on the local level the case was sent to the Texas legislature for a final decree. The legislature voted on the divorce and the decree became a part of state law and even appears in the legislative acts.

 Sometime between 1841 and 1846, when Texas became a part of the United States,  the legislature placed the  jurisdiction of divorces in the hands of the local district clerk. Today, jurisdiction over divorces remains with the district clerk where the case files are maintained.

 Beginning in 1968 the Texas legislature required district clerks to inform the State Bureau of Vital Statistics when a final divorce decree was granted. The State does not have a copy of the case files and will only confirm a divorce took place. As stated above, case files are maintained in the office of the district clerk where the divorce was granted.

CALIFORNIA BIRTH AND DEATH INDEXES ON INTERNET

 Researchers with California ancestry will be ecstatic to know the State of California has allowed Rootsweb to place on the Internet an online searchable database to their birth and death indexes.

 The birth index contains 2459236 records and covers the years 1905 to 1995. It is located at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/birth/search. cgi

 The death  index contains 9366786 records and covers the years 1940 to 1995. It is located at http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search .cgi

ENGLISH AND WELSH RECORDS ONLINE

 Volunteers in the British Isles have created an ongoing online index to English and Welsh vital records. The database, Free BMD, currently contains over 2.6 million births, marriages and deaths drawn from the Civil Registration System. More records are constantly being added.

 The records in the database begin in 1837 when the Civil Registration System began. They end in 1899 due to the British 100 Year Privacy Act. Subsequent years will be added as they are released to the public.

 Researchers may visit the website, which is hosted by Rootsweb, at http://freemd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

GENEALOGICAL CLASSES

 Trevia Wooster Beverly will offer a six week genealogy class, Genealogy It's A Family Affair, at the First Baptist Church, 7401 Katy Freeway. Classes will be held on Mondays from 7 PM to 9 PM commencing July 17. Due to limited space, pre-registration is required. For more information and to register, contact Beverly at 713-864-6862.

 Emily Croom will present a four week Beginning Genealogy class at the Bellaire Recreation Center, Laurel at Ferris streets in Bellaire. Classes will be held  on Thursdays from 7 P.M. to 9 P.M. beginning July 27. For more  information and to register call 713-662-8280.

NEWS FROM THE BOOK SHELF

 Librarian-archivist, prolific writer and Internet surfer Thomas Jay Kemp has compiled a book titled THE GENEALOGIST'S VIRTUAL LIBRARY: Full-Text Books On The World Wide Web. The book is available in cloth cover for $70 or in paperback for $27.50 from Scholarly Resources, 104 Greenhill Avenue, Wilmington, DE 19805.

 The Genealogist's Virtual Library is a guide to entire books and materials that have been digitized and made available for free on the Internet. To make "searching" for the books even simpler, the book contains a CD-Rom which may be loaded  in one's hard drive. The CD-Rom has hyperlinks to every book listed in the Virtual Library's bibliography.

 The book and CD-Rom have three sections: Family Histories, Local Histories and General Subjects. The family histories are listed alphabetically by the major surnames in the books. Local histories are arranged by state and then by locality. The General Subjects section lists digitized books on a wide array of topics ranging from African-Americans to Women.

 Several universities,  the Library of Congress and many archives have committed themselves to digitizing and placing massive numbers of books online in the next few years. The Genealogist's Virtual Library is the vanguard to tapping those sources already online.