Delayed Birth Certificate Records for Kentucky
Special thanks to Mary Hatton (transcription), Jerry Taylor (formatting), Suzanne Shepherd (extraction) and all other KyArch file managers who worked on getting this information organized, distributed and available for our genealogical research web sites.
Kentucky started keeping birth and
death records in 1852, stopped in 1862, started again in 1874, but did not
mandate this information be kept until 1 January 1911. Before that date, births and deaths were
recorded at the county level and copies were forwarded to the state each year.
Surviving birth records are mostly for the years 1852-1861, 1874-1879 and
1900-1910. Due to official indifference regarding record keeping statewide, a
lot of births were not recorded for many of the years before 1911. (The records for 1874-1879 have been indexed
for the entire state. That index is available at KDLA.)
People lacking official certificates were
able to file delayed birth
certificates with the state. This became common due to the
requirements of the newly formed Social Security Administration and military service. According to Roseann
Hogan, "Kentuckians have filed over a half-million of these delayed
certificates... Social Security, for a time, accepted completed certificates
that were not filed with the Department of Vital Statistics in Frankfort.
Therefore, it is possible, that even if no official certificate can be found in
Frankfort, a certificate may have been filed with Social Security or other
government agencies." (Ref: Kentucky Ancestry, page 79) Delayed birth certificates contain name,
age, date of birth, place
of birth, sex, race, parents' names, which is similar to regular birth
certificates. Plus two older witnesses, one related one unrelated.
These KyArchive posted records have been subdivided for easier
web access via the Internet for each Kentucky county with over 45,400 names
transcribed. Alternate text formats, file compression and discretionary record management will
be experienced for research purposes relative to the individual archive file
manager. Problems accessing the information should be reported to the
KyArchive State File Manager or Assistant to obtain help. Due to the
enormous size of the complete record file, it is maintained in the Microsoft
Excel format. Please contact the respective KyArchive County File Manager
for assistance in searching any specific individual surname.
The KYGENWEB Project has also provided some of this resource
information on their respective county web sites. Those KyGW County
Coordinators can also provide assistance for a specific county search where
available.
Excel Viewer - Use this link to download a utility for opening Excel format (*.xls) files if you do not have Microsoft Excel on your computer.
KY Delayed Birth Records - The
complete file is very large (7 Mb) and
in Excel format.
NOTE: It is recommended using high speed Internet
access (DSL or Broadband) to open these Excel files.
County List Spreadsheet Part 1 (3.5 Mb) Adair - Jefferson |
County List Spreadsheet Part 2 (3.4 Mb) Jessamine - Washington |
Complete list of surnames in document format (4.9 Mb) | |
Complete list of surnames in text format (2.6 Mb) |
Unknown County of Record - This file contains surnames with no associated county of birth noted on the certificate.
KyArchive Counties - This FTP web site will access all KyArchive county stored files. The birth record files archived are much smaller in size.
KyArchive Project - Access to the KyARCH state web site. The individual county birth record archived files are much smaller in size.
KyGenWeb Project - Access the project state web site and jump to individual county home pages.
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