I am looking for a Minnesota birth from 1889 and am not sure about the county. Ramsey, my best bet, just returned a 'not found' for my name. It looks like the Minnesota Dept of Public Health records begin at 1900, and the MNHS indicates the same, saying that "additional years will be added to the database as they become available." Does anyone know if they will be going back in time when they extend that on-line database? Also, is there somewhere in Minnesota where I can request a search if I know only the name and date, but not the county of birth? Thanks, Bart

At 08:39 AM 2/19/2006, Bart Hansen wrote: >I am looking for a Minnesota birth from 1889 and am not sure about the county. >Ramsey, my best bet, just returned a 'not found' for my name. > >It looks like the Minnesota Dept of Public Health records begin at 1900, >and the MNHS indicates the same, saying that "additional years will be >added to the database as they become available." There are two dates for the legal requirement to record births: First is 1870, which resulted in townships and villages records, some of which were passed along to the county. The second is 1911 -- which is when the state began to require (with some teeth added to the law) a copy of the birth certificates. Note that the MN DPH records begin at 1900, which is when they started to get interested in both birth and death records. They asked the counties to provide the information, and that's what is there before the 1911 date. The info to come in quotes above refers to later dates, because the MN DPH didn't get any of those township and village records -- they went to the counties when that recording was shut down, and of course govt. doesn't want to spend tax dollars going back in time and re-recording events! >Does anyone know if they will be going back in time when they extend >that on-line database? The current work is to bring it forward -- and there's a bunch of that to do! >Also, is there somewhere in Minnesota where I can request a search if >I know only the name and date, but not the county of birth? Not at this point -- do check the 1895 State census, which includes two columns that might be of help -- # of years in the state and # of years in the enumeration district. This would at least confirm if MN is the right place to look, and if the place of the 1895 census is the right place to look. And then be prepared to also look at baptismal records, because not every early birth got recorded. (The census can be obtained on interlibrary loan through your local public library from the MHS.) But that's what makes it fun -- those nuggets that have to be dug out always seem to sparkle just a little more.<G> Mary Mary Bakeman [email protected] Ramsey MnGenWeb Coordintor http://www.parkbooks.com/MnGenWeb/ Park Genealogical Books http://www.parkbooks.com/