Hallo again from New Zealand. I am still trying to find the birth records of my Great great Aunts born 1871 and 1873 in Pennsylvania. I now think their parents were living in Whitehall, Lehigh County in 1870. But I am a bit confused as to where to write. On the internet I looked up Lehigh County Courthouse which says if does not have copies of Births etc and these must be ordered through State Office. However the State Office says that for births prior to 1906 you must contact the Registrar of Wills, Orphans Court in the county in which the event occurred. I feel like I'm going round in circles. Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction Many thanks Catherine Auckland, New Zealand

Hi, Catherine, You're right, the state office doesn't keep anything prior to 1906, and then you must go to the county. And you say the Web site indicates they don't keep any birth records? That is the case often, unfortunately, and even if they did it would be rare to see they have birth records for the 1870s. I would suggest getting a phone number from the Web site and speaking to an person at the courthouse, just to make sure they don't carry any old births. After that I'm not sure where you'd go to get a birth; a family Bible may be the only luck you'd have, and finding that, well, I don't have to tell you how difficult that would be. You may have to settle for getting the information you seek through other means. For example, if you are seeking parents' names you could get death certificates instead, etc. You could also check to find them in the Census records for parents' names. Knowing which pieces of information you are looking for will help narrow the field. I hope this helps, even if it's just a little. All the best, Elysia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Catherine Musgrave" <musgrave@value.net.nz> To: <PENNSYLVANIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 11:47 PM Subject: [PA] Vital records in Lehigh County - 1870 > Hallo again from New Zealand. > > I am still trying to find the birth records of my Great great Aunts born > 1871 and 1873 in Pennsylvania. I now think their parents were living in > Whitehall, Lehigh County in 1870. But I am a bit confused as to where > to write. On the internet I looked up Lehigh County Courthouse which > says if does not have copies of Births etc and these must be ordered > through State Office. However the State Office says that for births > prior to 1906 you must contact the Registrar of Wills, Orphans Court in > the county in which the event occurred. I feel like I'm going round in > circles. > > Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction > > Many thanks > Catherine > Auckland, New Zealand > > > > ==== PENNSYLVANIA Mailing List ==== > The OFFICIAL website for this list is: > http://midatlantic.rootsweb.com/pa/ > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >