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The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day

Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.

'Handybook' is a very handy resource for any genealogist

This story was published Oct. 1, 2000

When genealogists pursue their roots all over the country, how do they know where to write for official records, such as birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, wills and other evidences of who is who and who they are related to?

In the words of Sherlock Holmes, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

It's in the book.

That's The Handybook for Genealogists: United States of America, eighth edition published by The Everton Publishers, Inc., Logan, Utah.

The Handybook provides addresses where we can write for public records. That includes not only state and federal offices, but all 3,142 county offices.Ê

Well, actually I'm not sure how many counties there are in the 50 states; a quick search turns up the numbers 3,142, 3,082 and 3,069, and I'm confident that a few minutes more searching would turn up still different sums.

Regardless of the actual number, suffice it to say there are more government offices that have documents of value to genealogists than you can shake a stick at in a month of Sundays.

The Handybook takes much of the pain out of locating those thousands of addresses.

In addition, it tells what records are available in each office and reveal the time period for which the offices have information.

Let's say you are looking for Uncle Lester's birth and death dates. You know he was born in present-day Benton County, Wash., in 1901 or 1902 and died in Latah County, Idaho, about 1985.

Turning to The Handybook, you will learn that your best bet of finding Uncle Lester's birth record would be to write the Yakima County Auditor's office.

So, why Yakima?

Because Benton County was created in 1905 out of parts of Yakima and Klickitat counties. Benton County has birth records only for 1905-07.

Beginning in 1907, birth records are located in the State Department of Health, Vital Records, in Olympia.

Frankly, I don't know what you do if Uncle Lester was born in that part of Benton County that was taken from Klickitat County, because the book doesn't list any birth records for Klickitat County. Klickitat County is one of Washington's venerable counties. It dates to 1859.

I suppose we could get into a bit of an argument over which county is Washington's oldest.

The Handybook says that would be Clark County, which was created in 1844. Ah, but it was then called Vancouver County, the name being changed to Clark in 1849. By that time we had Lewis County, organized in 1845. So, I suppose it depends somewhat on definitions.

But I digress, which is easy to do with a book like The Handybook in hand. It's a gold mine of valuable information.

If Uncle Lester had been born after 1907, we would be looking in the Division of Vital Records office in Olympia.

Now, looking for Uncle Lester's death records is simpler. Idaho has filed birth and death records in the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Boise since August 1911.

Now, if Uncle Lester had been born in Latah County, we might be in a world of hurt. Although Latah County was created in 1888, Idaho didn't require counties to keep birth records until January 1907. And apparently Latah County didn't get into the birth record business until that date.

Wherever you write, be sure to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the reply.

You should be able to buy The Handybook from almost any book store, or directly from Everton. The cost is about $35. For me, this is a must-have reference, but if it would stretch your budget, chances are your local library has it.

If not, I all but guarantee your nearest genealogy society or Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will have one.

An apology to readers:

I recently bought a new computer and had difficulty configuring both of my e-mail accounts. I finally figured it out and opened my genealogy account. More than 40 messages from readers awaited. If you've sent me e-mail in recent weeks and I haven't responded, please forgive me. You should hear from me soon.