Marriage Records Search

 

Latter Day Saints Release Geneology CD-ROMs 10/01/98. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, U.S.A.,  -- By Matt Hines, Newsbytes. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is taking its vast annals of genealogy information and putting some of the information on new CD-ROMs which it will sell to the public. The disks cull data from a number of historic censuses, parish records, and other geneology data sources, which the church has collected over years of research. The church, based in Salt Lake City, has been offering its digital geneology data resources through its family history centers throughout the United States since 1978, but researchers generally have had to physically go to the centers in order to get access to the data. The newest product features records gathered from church, civil and parish records from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. According to the church, this research dates back more than 450 years. The two products come in the form of a North American Vital Records Index and a British Isles Vital Index. According to the researchers, the North American Vital Records Index lists nearly five million names taken from church and civil records and other collections in the United States and Canada. The items in this seven-CD set focus on marriage records (six disks) and also list some births and christenings (one disk), according to church spokesmen. The group said these records are indexed by date from the year 1620 to 1888. The church said the index will be updated periodically as more information becomes available, possibly adding millions of new names with each future volume. For its part, the British Vital Records Index contains nearly five million names from parish registers, civil registrations and other record collections in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, church officials said. The records on this index span more than three centuries, from 1538 to 1888. The five CDs in this set focus on birth and christening records (four disks) and also list some marriages (one disk), spokesmen said. According to the group the amount of accessible data can vary greatly from parish to parish. This vital records index will also be an ongoing project, with periodic updates being planned. "It takes a long time to gather this amount of information and the CD-ROM format is a great way to get it into the public's hands," said Dan Rascon, a church spokesman. "With the products that we've put out already combined with this one and larger releases down the road, we're making a huge amount of data available." According to the church, genealogy is the third most popular hobby in the US and the second most popular topic on the Internet. A Maritz Marketing Research study which it conducted for American Demographic Magazine which estimates that approximately 19 million people actively trace their lineage. The group said that since 1978, thousands of Latter Day Saint volunteers and others have spent millions of hours carefully reading and examining microfilmed records. The volunteers then extract from these original records useful information such as names, dates, places, and family relationships. The resulting data is then indexed, and in the case of the vital record indexes, automated into resource files that offer easy access and save time for family history devotees.

 

Rascon said that the church's Family History Department expects to begin releasing the 1880 US Census and the 1881 British Census in early 1999. Three other new software products were introduced in April of this year: The Family History SourceGuide, an automated research guide developed at the church's Family History Library; The 1851 British Census which is an index to census records of Devon, Norfolk, and Warwick counties; and The Australian Vital Records Index (1788-1905), an index to records from New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. The Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints claims to be the world leader in genealogical work, with more than 3,200 family history centers worldwide and the world's largest collection of family history records, housed in Salt Lake City, Utah. More information is available on the church's Web site at http://www.lds.com . Reported By Newsbytes News Network http://www.newsbytes.com (19981001/Press contact: Dan Rascon, 801-240-1977, or Paul Nauta, 801-240-6498, both of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/WIRES PC/)

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