Series 83806

MORGAN COUNTY (UTAH). COUNTY CLERK [660]

BIRTH AND DEATH REGISTERS, 1897-1905.
1 microfilm reel

A separate agency history is available.

DESCRIPTION: These records contain birth registers and death registers recorded in the same volume during the years 1897 through 1905. For births, each entry has the father's age and birthplace, mother's age and birthplace, residence, assigned number, child's name, date of birth, sex, legitimacy, race, color, and parent's names. For deaths, each entry has the decedent's name, date of death, occupation, age, marital status, sex, race, color, residence, term of residence, cause of death, informant making the report, and assigned number.

Beginning in 1898, physicians and midwives were required to keep record of each birth at which they assisted professionally. In their absence, parents were required to make a report. Under the same law, each physician, clergyman, justice of the peace, and undertaker was required to keep a registry of the name, age, residence, and time of death of the decedent. These individuals then reported these births and deaths quarterly to the county clerk or in the case of incorporated cities, to the local board of health, and they would in turn report to the county clerk (Revised Statutes of Utah 1898, Title 57, p. 474-475).

In 1905, the state passed a law requiring each county to file a uniform certificate of birth or death with the State Bureau of Vital Statistics.

ARRANGEMENT: Births are recorded in the first half of the book and deaths in the second. Births 1897-1898 are both listed by birth date and then repeated alphabetically by initially letter of surname. Births 1902-1904 are listed only by date, not repeated under the alphabetic tabs. Deaths, beginning on page 50, are listed alphabetically by initial letter of surname.

RELATED RECORDS: Series 81443, Birth certificates of the Bureau of Vital Records, record this information after 1904 but do not become public or come into archival custody until 100 years after birth.

FINDING AIDS: An electronic index has been created for the births, although not for the deaths.

PROCESSING NOTE: Processed by M. Call in September 1998. Although most counties have separate birth and death registers, Morgan County recorded both in the same volume and too closely together to be separated for reference convenience.

GAPS: There seem to be no births recorded for 1899-1901.