FamilySearch databases online -- a summary

An article in the Terre Haute Tribune Star, "GENEALOGY: Family Search putting three new databases online," summarizes databases recently added to FamilySearch web site, including Nova Scotia birth, marriage, and death records. As the article reports, Nova Scotia is the first Canadian province to digitize its vital statistics and offer them for free on-line viewing. Utah death certificates, 250,000+ certificates from 1905 to 1954 linked with index and images. Birth records in the county will be put on line after 100 years and death records after 50 years, to comply with privacy laws. Additionally, the Personal Ancestral File database also adds the ability to view names in family tree format. The article also notes details of the West Virginia vital records online access, added in 2005. More than 1.4 million scanned records of births, marriages, and deaths from the counties of Calhoun, Gilmer, Hardy, Harrison, Mineral, and Pendleton.