Kindergarten sign-ups have started in my town, which means that I get to register my eldest child sometime within the next few weeks. (Not even sad or sentimental about it; he's ready to go - he NEEDS to go :-) Of course, that means I had to get out his birth certificate. I haven't really looked at it much since his birth (maybe once for t-ball registration?), so I spent some time staring at it. When my kids were born, we lived in northern Kentucky, but both of them were born in Hamilton County, Ohio. (I was very high risk and needed care from specialists at one of the major Cincinnati hospitals.) I looked at the birth certificate through the filter of a genealogist's eyes and thought to myself, "Man, if one of his descendants is ever searching for his birth records, he or she may really have trouble finding them." We never had a residence on the Ohio side of the river, neither me nor my husband ever worked there, and we weren't registered at any churches there. (Of course, I'm *hoping* that all my meticulous genealogy record-keeping will ensure that none of my kids' descendants will ever have to search for this kind of stuff :-)
Once you've been doing family tree research for a little while, you learn to check a neighboring state's records if your ancestors lived and/or worked near the border. But, if you are just beginning your research, you may run up against a bit of a "brick wall" when trying to locate certain records. Soon enough, you realize that finding records "across the border" can be quite common. My husband's maternal grandfather lived in Mercer County, Ohio, which is on the Ohio-Indiana border; however, he passed away in Indiana because that was where the nearest big hospital was located. A ggg-uncle of my husband's was married, worked, and lived in Cincinnati for most of his life, but in his old age he went to live with his son, who lived across the river in Kentucky. He passed away and is buried in Kentucky.
So, if you are ever stuck looking for a particular birth, death, or burial record, AND if the person lived relatively close to another state, check records from that state. You just may find what you are looking for!
Once you've been doing family tree research for a little while, you learn to check a neighboring state's records if your ancestors lived and/or worked near the border. But, if you are just beginning your research, you may run up against a bit of a "brick wall" when trying to locate certain records. Soon enough, you realize that finding records "across the border" can be quite common. My husband's maternal grandfather lived in Mercer County, Ohio, which is on the Ohio-Indiana border; however, he passed away in Indiana because that was where the nearest big hospital was located. A ggg-uncle of my husband's was married, worked, and lived in Cincinnati for most of his life, but in his old age he went to live with his son, who lived across the river in Kentucky. He passed away and is buried in Kentucky.
So, if you are ever stuck looking for a particular birth, death, or burial record, AND if the person lived relatively close to another state, check records from that state. You just may find what you are looking for!
