Allen County KY
Free Deaths 1852-1861
Introduction
Dr. William L. Sutton of Georgetown, KY, first President of the KY State Medical Association, was the father of Vital Statistics in the state of KY. Kentucky was the first state west of the Alleghenies to have a law requiring the registration of births, marriage and deaths, passed January 9, 1852. However, due to the political upheavals of the era, the recording of vitals was discontinued during the war. Other attempts were made 1900-1904, 1908-1910 and beginning in 1911 the records have been consistently recorded until the present time.
The 1852 law required clergymen, magistrates, physicians, surgeons and mid-wives to keep records and deposit these on or before January 10 of each year. This would generate the first set of possible errors in recording the data as the information would be recorded in the year it was submitted, when in actuality it was from the previous year. The second set of errors could possibly occur as the clerk entered the data , transposing information, and the third set of errors could possibly occur as the clerk's documents were copied in 1942 as a WPA project, when the Kentucky Historical Society began to salvage the remnants of the records kept during the decade from 1852-1862. This set of records could possibly contain additional 4th generation errors due to interpretation of illegible handwriting, faded pages, etc. However unsatisfactory, incomplete, and erroneous these records may be, they do provide information unobtainable elsewhere.
These death records are a compilation of two separate sets of records: the Allen County KY Vital Death Statistics of 1852-1859 & 1861, and the 1860 Census Mortality Schedule. These records should be used as a guideline to be verified by other records such as family Bibles, cemetery records, etc. With one exception, I have made no attempt to change the spellings or information as it appears on the film as I felt the integrity of the records should be kept intact. The exception was in the instance where a child's surname was not given, and therefore the surname was taken from the parents information.
In 1861, the birthplace of the parents was added to the recorded information. Unless otherwise noted, the parent(s) was born in Allen Co, KY. I have not attempted to change any information, or make any conclusions, leaving the interpretation of the data to the family researcher. The information in ( ) are notations which do not appear on the microfilm. A "?" will indicate illegible writing or information that isn't clear. The 1860 Mortality Schedule is actually a listing of deaths from June 1, 1859-May 31, 1860. To prevent confusion, I have noted the difference in the year in ( ). There are NO parents or owners given for the 1860 Mortality Schedule.
At first glance the novice researcher may wonder why children who did not survive birth, or are under 5 years of age, are listed. This information can verify the location of your ancestor and the name of the parents where marriage records do not exist. I have also included information found on the microfilm that has never before been published. To my knowledge, this is the first ever printing of the slave vital records. The intent is not to embarrass anyone, but simply to inform researchers where they will encounter a "brick wall" that will in all probablity not be overcome, help African-American researchers gain additional family information, and, most importantly, to record the facts as they are found in public record.
The information on this site is copyrighted in its present form. Researchers may use the information provided for personal use, but the information cannot be reproduced for profit or other gain.
Happy Hunting
Sharon Tabor