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Genealogy

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The Vital Registration Office is the state level office of vital statistics in West Virginia and maintains vital records and reports for legal use and for the compilation of public health statistics regarding the health of West Virginians.

The Vital Registration Office maintains records of birth, death, marriage and divorce for people who were born, died, married, or divorced in the State of West Virginia.  The Vital Registration Office retains the following records for vital events that occurred in the state of West Virginia:

  • Birth records from 1917 to present
  • Delayed filed birth records starting around 1850
  • Death records from 1917 to present
  • Marriage indexes from 1924 to present
  • Marriage records from 1964 to present
  • Divorce indexes from 1967 to present

Although the records maintained by the Vital Registration Office are of genealogical importance, the best resource of genealogical information is the West Virginia Division of Culture and History's Archives and History Library, located in the Cultural Center in the main Capitol Complex in Charleston, West Virginia.  The West Virginia Division of Culture and History also has a helpful page for how to find information on their website. 

The State Archives has a large collection of data, including:

  • County birth and death records
  • Census records
  • Military records
  • County court documents
  • Naturalization records
  • Newspapers
  • State government documents and publications
  • Even older records from Vital Registration
  • And many other records of interest to the family researcher.

Additional resources:

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