West Virginia Births and Christenings - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection is an electronic index of births and christenings for the years 1853 to 1928 comprised of the following:


 * Indexed church records
 * Civil registrations
 * The Internet indexing project sponsored by the LDS Church

Church records and civil registration were official sources and are some of the most reliable sources of family history information.

This index is not complete for any particular place, region or time period. This collection may include information previously published in the International Genealogical Index or Vital Records Index collections.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
For details about the contents of these records and help using them see the wiki article Births and Christenings Vital Record Index Collections (FamilySearch Historical Records).

The records in this collection include the following information:
 * Name of child
 * Gender
 * Birth date and place
 * Christening date and place
 * Names of parents

The records may also include the following information:
 * Race
 * Parents' place of birth
 * Age of parents
 * Death date (if occurring within a few years of birth)

Coverage Table
A coverage table for this collection is available in the wiki article West Virginia Births and Christenings, Coverage Table (FamilySearch Historical Records)

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


 * The person’s name
 * The approximate date and place of birth

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?
Print or download a copy of the record, or extract the genealogical information needed.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the birth date along with the place of birth to find the family in census records
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records
 * The father’s occupation can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records
 * The parents' birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby
 * The information in birth records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800's
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record

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

 * The records are very brief, so it is easy to confuse individuals in the index. In addition, an individual may be listed multiple times with slight spelling variations of their name
 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names
 * Look for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur
 * 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. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation:

"West Virginia Births and Christenings, 1853-1928." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.

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