Catherine Desmarais, Certified Genealogist

Archive for the ‘Public Records Access’ Category

More Vermont Vital Records on Family Search!

Friday, October 5th, 2012

Breaking news… Family Search has added over 50% more Vermont Vital Records images! I dashed onto the Family Search website today to quickly look up a birth record, and saw something I didn’t expect. Two groups of Vermont Vital Records?

Vermont databases on Family Search

If you are not familiar with how to navigate to these records, go to the Family Search homepage. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on United States. Then scroll down to the bottom of the left side of this page and click on Vermont. You’ll see the two groups of vital records images near the bottom of the list.

The first group is titled, Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954. There are 1,868,775 images, and the notes still say that the collection is not yet complete for records prior to 1871. This database and set of images hasn’t been updated since last January, despite all the stars I have been wishing on. My understanding is that the surnames at the very end of the alphabet have not yet been indexed. I hope that this will be finished up soon.

The new images are titled, Vermont Vital Records, 1760-2003. Whoa. That’s a big time span there. Despite the title, the records seem to be from the 1955-2003 time span. There are 1,162,117 images in this group. There is no searchable index yet, but there are indexes available if you browse the images. Some of the images are arranged alphabetically. In addition to the usual birth, marriage and death records, there are also divorce records and amended and delayed registrations of vital records. The newest records, from 1980-2003, have a note at the top that the images are courtesy of Ancestry.com.

I’m fortunate to live and research in an open records state. And now we are all fortunate to be able to research more Vermont ancestors any day or time, even in our jammies and bunny slippers. Thank you Family Search! Now about the rest of that searchable index for the earliest Vermont Vitals….

 

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Posted in professional genealogy, Public Records Access, Vermont Genealogy, Vermont Town Records | 2 Comments »

Do You have a Vermont Black Sheep Ancestor?

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

Black sheep ancestors are often the most interesting. If your black sheep ancestor lived in nineteenth- or twentieth-century Vermont, they just got even more interesting. The Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA) recently accessioned records from the Vermont State Prison at Windsor. The prison registers begin in 1809, and often include specific towns, counties and states of birth for the inmates. We are talking about specific birthplaces for folks born in the 1700s! A few of the reasons these records are important include:

  • Many adults living in Vermont during the earliest decades of the 1800s were born outside of Vermont, and documenting their specific place of birth can be key to determining who their parents were.
  • The dates of admission and discharge on the prison records can be important to locating other records pertaining to the case – court records and legislative petitions for pardon come to mind.
  • Some of the records include physical descriptions of the inmate, and records after 1917 may include a photograph.

I know some of you are thinking, “My ancestor might have caused a little trouble, but nothing serious enough to land himself in a state prison.” You might want to rethink that. Last week I researched a client’s ancestor who found himself in the state prison for stealing oxen. His accomplice, a 12-year-old boy, was also imprisoned. The prison records led to the original legislative petitions for pardon. Those netted an original signature of the client’s imprisoned ancestor and a signature of the boy’s father. He identified himself as the father when he signed, offering proof of kinship to a man who was of age to have fought in the Revolutionary War. It doesn’t often get better than that.

If you want to search these records, the Archives staff will do limited look ups for you. For more in-depth research, you’ll need to visit the VSARA personally or hire a researcher to go for you. Below are screenshots for entries from a series database search on the VSARA website for the records in this record set:

 

If you don’t find your wayward ancestor in the state prison records, VSARA also has prison registers from Grand Isle County and Rutland County prisons, beginning in 1877. Aren’t black sheep ancestors fun? Do you have a story to tell about yours?

 

 

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Posted in Public Records Access, Vermont Genealogy, Vermont State Archives and Records Administration | 2 Comments »

Vermont Public Records Access

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

I’ve heard other researchers talk about being denied access to records, but I hadn’t encountered this myself. Until yesterday, that is.

I was planning to drive to a local courthouse to search for 19th-century divorce records for a client, but after the lesson I learned last month, I called the courthouse first. It took three phone calls before I found the office where the records I needed were located. When I reached the right clerk, I told her that I wanted to come and search the divorce records from the 1890s, but just wanted to confirm that the records were housed in that office and that the courthouse was open. She told me that I could make a written request for a search for the particular divorce record I wanted, but I wouldn’t be able to search them myself. When I told her that I believed that they were public records, she restated that I could fax or mail (not email) a written request for a search a particular name, but I couldn’t go in the vault to search them. I thanked her and faxed her my request, but it made me wonder about public access. If the particular record group was too fragile for public inspection I could understand it, but this seemed more like a blanket restriction.

I asked for thoughts from researchers on FaceBook. New England Researcher Ruy Cardoso CG suggested that I should show up at the courthouse with some cookies. Not a bad idea. Certainly a little sugar, whether literal or figurative, can go a long way anywhere in life. Judy G. Russell, better known as The Legal Genealogist, suggested that I carry a copy of the Vermont public records law with me. Great idea!

I was going to the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration in Middlesex that day, so I made myself a copy of the statutes there. (Thanks for your help finding it, Marissa!) As Scott Reilly pointed out to me, the statutes are also available online. Click on §§ 315-320. Specifically, §317(a)(2)(b) gives the following definition: “As used in this subchapter, “public record” or “public document” means any written or recorded information, regardless of physical form or characteristics, which is produced or acquired in the course of public agency business.” The law lists 40 exemptions to public records. If the record is created by a public agency and isn’t listed in the exemptions, then it is a public record. Vermont is one of the few states where the vital records (birth, marriage, civil union, divorce, death) are open public records.

There is a PDF document online titled, “A Matter of Public Record: A Guide to Vermont’s Public Records Law” that explains Vermont’s public records law. It is missing the 2011 updates to the law regarding timelines for public agencies to respond, but it has a lot of very helpful information. It provides information in “plain English” rather than “legalese,” although the statutes are pretty easy to understand by themselves. This document contains sample letters to use for requesting public records. I also noted with interest that there is an Official Fee Schedule on page 18 that states that photocopies of public records are charged at $.05 per page. This is what is charged at the Vermont Archives, but at a local city clerk’s office I was recently charged $2.00 for one page of a public record at a self-service copier. Hmm. Section 316(a)(2)(b) of the public records law states that a public agency can charge “the actual cost of providing the copy.” Could that possibly amount to $2.00 when no staff time is involved? On page 19 of the Guide to Vermont’s Public Records Law, there is a chart describing Town Clerk’s Fees, as of 2009. There it states that uncertified copies can be charged at $2.00 for the first page and $1.00 per page after that. It sounds like that is the basis for what I was charged. I wonder what the basis is for the wide discrepancy between $.05 and $2.00 for a page?

So, what about those nineteenth-century divorce records I wanted? Hopefully the court will send me the record I want in response to the request I faxed. If I decide that I need to search the records myself, I’ll probably try asking again, perhaps to someone a bit higher up. That’s probably all it would take. Vermont is a very friendly state. If necessary, I could present my request for access in writing. At least I better understand the process now.

Do you have a story about being denied access to public records anywhere during your genealogical research? How did you resolve it? I’d love to hear your story!

 

Posted in My research projects, Public Records Access, Vermont Genealogy, Vermont Town Records | 7 Comments »

Association of Professional Genealogists member

Catherine Desmarais is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists

board certified

Catherine is a Board-Certified Genealogist. Certified Genealogist and CG are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified associates after periodic competency evaluations.