On the 16th of December, Ancestry.com posted the Maine Vital Records from data found at the Maine State Archives. The records themselves are transcriptions of births, marriages and deaths that took place statewide. They are digitzed, and indexed. These are not images of the originals recorded at the town level. However, they do comprise a statewide set of Maine vital records, transcribed from those made on the local level.
Following you will find links to the three Ancestry.com databases, as well as a short description of each.
Maine Birth Records, 1621-1922
Contained in this index are Maine birth records from 1621-1922. From 1621-1891 record birth records were not standardize and therefore are sparsely recorded. Though there are many records from 1621-1891, this collection contains a comprehensive birth record set only from 1892-1922.
Information in this index:
- Child’s Name
- Birth Date
- Birth place
- Father’s Name
- Mother’s Name
The above information is excerpted from a much longer About Maine Birth Records, 1621-1922 found at Ancestry.com
Maine Marriage Records, 1705-1922
Contained in this index are Maine marriage records from 1705-1922. From 1705-1891 record marriage records were not standardize and therefore are sparsely recorded. Therefore, this collection contains a comprehensive marriage record set only from 1892-1922.
Information in this index:
- Surname
- Date
- Location
- Parents’ Names
- Birthdates
The above information is excerpted from a much longer About Maine Marriage Records, 1705-1922 found at Ancestry.com
Maine Death Records, 1617-1922
Contained in this index are Maine death records from 1617-1922. From 1617-1891 record death records were not standardize and therefore are sparsely recorded. Though there are many records from 1621-1891, this collection contains a comprehensive birth record set only from 1892-1922.
Information in this index:
- Surname
- Date
- Location
- Spouse’s Name
- Children
The above information is excerpted from a much longer About Maine Death Records, 1617-1922 found at Ancestry.com
I decided to do a few searches in the Maine vital records found at Ancestry.com, starting with a birth records search for Dorothy Walker, the mother of President George HW Bush. I found the following digitized image:
The indexer missed it pretty badly when attempting to index the birth record card for Miss Walker, but then again, I knew what to look for, while the the indexer did not.
The Maine Marriage Index 1892-1966 – found at WorldVitalRecords.com
Before 1820, Maine was part of Massachusetts. Early records of people who lived in Maine were kept at the town level before state registration in 1892 began. This database contains records from 1892-1966, more than 850,000 names. From the Maine State Archives, Death Records, 1960-1996, February 8, 2001.
The Maine Death Index – 1960-1997 – found at Ancestry.com
This database is an index to death records for the state of Maine for the years 1960 to 1997. In addition to providing the name of the deceased, the index also provides the date and place of death, the age at time of death, and the death certificate number. Information found in this index should provide you with enough information to order a death certificate.
The Maine Death Index– found at WorldVitalRecords.com
This index, made available by the Maine Department of Human Services, contains an individual’s name, date of death, death certificate number, age, and the location where the death occurred. Data for 1996 is not complete. Later data is not currently available from the Archives in electronic form.
Ancestry.com and WorldVitalRecords.com are both subscription websites. The following links are to the FREE site, FamilySearch.org:
The following Maine Vital Records are found at FamilySearch.org. There are no digital images tied to these records (not as of Jan 1, 2011 anyway). The collections are not large, as compared to those now found at Ancestry.com. However, access is FREE at FamilySearch.org.
Maine Births and Christenings, 1739-1900 found at FamilySearch.org – This set contains 940,882 records as of Jan 1, 2011
Maine Marriages, 1771-1907 found at FamilySearch.org – This set contains 597,508 records as of Jan 1, 2011
Maine Deaths and Burials, 1841-1910 found at FamilySearch.org – This set contains 172,879 records as of Jan 1, 2011.
Pingback: Genealogy Newsline Vol. 1 # 1