Kentucky, Vital Record Indexes - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Kentucky 

What is in the Collection?
This collection consists of indexes of births, marriages and deaths from January 1911 to July 1999. These indexes were created by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives from data files obtained from the Office of Vital Statistics.

Coverage Map
To see a coverage map of FamilySearch's holdings of Kentucky marriages, click here.

The first vital statistics laws were passed in 1852 but were repealed in 1962. Additional attempts were made to require recording of vital records between the years 1862 and 1911 when the current Office of Vital Statics was created.

The surviving lists, returns and certificates are in the State Archives in Frankfort. They are arranged by county and cover the following years:


 * 1852-1859
 * 1873-1879
 * 1893-1910
 * 1973-1999 (marriages only)

The cities of Covington, Lexington, Louisville and Newport also maintained birth and death registers from the late 1890s to 1911.

A number in the child's "middle name" field on a birth record indicates that no name was provided for the child. 1=boy child 2=girl child If the mother was unmarried the child was assigned the mother's first and last name. If the mother was married the child was assigned the father's first and last name.

Copies of original records are available from: Office of Vital Statistics 275 E. Main St. Frankfort, KY 40601 $ Fees apply

Collection Contents
Birth records may include the following:


 * Name of the child
 * Gender
 * Names of the parents
 * Birth date
 * Birthplace

Marriage records usually include the following:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Groom's name
 * Bride's name including her maiden name
 * Names of the officiator and witnesses
 * Names of the parents or guardians of the bride and groom
 * Groom's place of birth
 * Bride's place of birth
 * Residences of the bride and groom
 * Bride and Groom's age
 * Bride and Groom's race
 * Marital status of the bride and groom

Death records usually include the following:


 * Name of the deceased
 * Date of birth
 * Place of birth
 * Marital status
 * Gender
 * Race
 * Age at death
 * Occupation
 * Date of death
 * Time of death
 * Place of death
 * Address of the deceased
 * Parents’ names
 * Places of birth of the parents
 * Date of burial
 * Place of burial
 * Cause of death
 * Name and address of the informant

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search you will need to know


 * The name of your ancestor
 * Other identifying information such as the birth date, death date or death place

To search the collection by name: Fill in the requested information on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Download a copy of the record, or extract the genealogical information needed. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details. Add this new information to your records of each family. The information may also lead you to other records about your ancestors. For example use the places to search for census, church and land records

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Continue to search the index to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have been born, married and/or died in the same place or nearby.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking For, Now What?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name.

Related Wiki Articles

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Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):