WV Birth, Death & Marriage Records to Go Online

Bucking the growing trend of restricting access to birth, marriage and death records, the West Virginia Division of Culture and History plans to add a searchable database on its Web site that will let individuals search and view images of almost all state birth, marriage and death certificates.

"With genealogy such a hot topic these last few years, there's going to be a lot of demand for this," said Deputy Commissioner Ginny Painter. "We're really excited."

The project is being implemented under a $249,000 contract with TMC Technologies, Inc., who also recently redesigned the Web site of the WV Division of Culture and History.

According to the Charleston Daily News, the vital records database will go online within the next few months with data from the counties of Harrison, Mineral, Pendleton, Hardy, Calhoun and Gilmer. Other counties will be added as the data becomes available.

To protect the privacy of living individuals and deter any possible misuse of the data by identity thieves, birth certificates will be available online only up to 1930, while marriage and death records will be available up to 1970.