Birth and Death Records

Few births were recorded by civil authorities before 1853. You may find some information on pre-1853 births and deaths in genealogies, histories, church and Bible records, and collections of personal papers.

From 1853 to 1896, the state required county officials to record births and deaths. Abstracts are available online. Microfilm copies are available at the Library of Virginia (site includes a Death Registers Index^[1] and a Guide for Using the Collections) and the FamilySearch Library FS Library Films 2026327-52, 2046907.

Registration of births and deaths was not required between 1896 and 14 June 1912, but the health departments of some cities kept birth and death records during that period. Delayed birth registrations for the years 1896-1912 are available at the Division of Vital Records (see address below), and an index is on FS Library films.

FS Library Films 2026352-3.

Statewide registration of vital statistics began in 1912. The Division of Vital Records has the records from 14 June 1912 to the present. The FamilySearch Library does not have copies of these records. You can obtain copies by going to Virginia Certificates (official government site) or VitalRecords.com (commercial site).

Birth records less than 100 years old and death records less than 50 years old are available to immediate family members only who provide proper identification.

Index to 1850-1896

Wendel Peters, past County Clerk, once told me folks would be really upset when viewing the Death Registers at the Floyd Court House because they contradicted what they thought they already knew. After creating an index of those images to use as reference in updating Cemeteries of Floyd County, I can understand the frustration. However, I did learn a bit about these records that I thought I should address here.

First, as you’ll see for yourself, some are very hard to read. I did the best I could, but as always, feel free to email me with any comments or corrections. Barb at BootsWi@gmail.com

2^nd they are incomplete. As most of us know, 1862 & 1863 are missing altogether. But other years also seem to be missing information. I did retrieve these images off of Family Search. I’m not sure if the pages were missing altogether at the time they were scanned, or pages accidently were saved to a different reel. A page of Fluvanna’s was tucked in among Floyd’s, so I supposed that is a possibility. I did email that organization about the Fluvanna page & if any other Floyd pages are found, I would appreciate being notified. Wendell Peter’s once said he would like these really old documents to be donated to the Historical Society, so I’ve also asked them if they have the original registers to compare to.

3^rd It’s very apparent that not all deaths were reported. A Mortality Schedule was completed every 10 years at the same time the county’s population was enumerated (Census). Floyd has a Mortality Schedule for 1850-1860-1870-1880. I compared the two & they didn’t even come close to being the same. Even an individual who I’m fairly certain is the same person in both, will have different information.

But you’ll be able to see it all for yourself as all available images are included below. I’ve also created an index of sorts.

Here is an example of my index:

Full Name	Year of Death & Year of Death Register if Recorded	Year of Mortality Schedule
Agnew, John	1880	1880 FCVA Mortality Schedule Only
Agnew, John W.	1880
Agnew, Sarah J.	1892
Akers, Mary	1880	1880 FCVA Mortality Schedule
Jacob, slave of James Litteral	1859