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Graveyards and cemeteries are a prime place to dig up more information. Visit the cemetery that you know your ancestors are buried in and look for other family members. It’s a good idea to take a record of the info from the tombstones. Taking a note of wider information that isn’t directly related to your blood line may still be useful later if you hit a family history dead-end, giving you another avenue of family history research. You may not get to visit this cemetery frequently or more than once so it pays to have it recorded. You could use a digital camera to save time recording family history information from the headstones.
Birth records are very important to family historians but recent birth records are more difficult to obtain because privacy law often prohibits the public release of such information until it can be confirmed that individuals died or such time has passed that it is not possible for them to still be living. One thing to look out for when you are using birth records for family history is that there are usually three types; original records that are unchanged and were registered at the time of birth, amended birth records which have been modified, corrected or have new family history information added, and Postponed or delayed – These represent family history records that were issued some time after the birth event as the certificate was not created or registered at that time.
Many local libraries and history societies have a family history section, files or resources dedicated to Family history and while many of these require membership it is a cost effective way of accessing multiple family history resources, without the cost mounting up.
You can access parts of Kentucky’s family history records for free through the University of Kentucky website. Including among other sources are the Kentucky Death Index from 1911 to 1986 and from 1987 to 1992, the Kentucky Marriage Index from 1973-1993, as well as the Kentucky Divorce Index from 1973 to 1993).
