Where to Write for Vital Records

Wondering where to write to get that vital piece of information? Here are the records that are in existance for Orange County, and the offices where they are kept.

Recently the access to public records throughout the state have become very difficult to obtain, due to fiscal restraints. If your are a local voting member of the county your chances of access are wonderful, but for those of us that reside outside of the county and/or state some difficulty will be present.

We do, however, have an alternative option. Orange County is blesses with a researcher that tries to answer genealogical questions sent in to the public library and the Recorder's Office. In requesting records, the Orange County researcher submitted the following advice:

• "I would never write to a courthouse and ask for a record. I know how little effort is put into finding records by employees who hate to do it. I always find someone to do this for me. I know it cost more, but it's worth it in the long run."
• "When writing to a county office for records, a researcher should only ask for one thing at a time. Otherwise, the employee who knows nothing about research feels over-whelmed. "
• If someone request a copy of a marriage record, etc, I will copy and send it at no charge. If they want more , I do research for a fee of $10 an hour and I ask for 2 hours payment in advance. I offer to do this to help researchers, not because I want or need the money. It takes time away from my own research and I also get too involved in their family lines.
  

All letters of request are forwarded to our county's researcher. This is a truly unfortunate result of voting to cut taxes. With the advent of the increased interest in genealogy, the local county courthouses are strapped with an overload of request. Staffed to take care of the daily legal requirements of the county the additional workload puts an undo workload on fewer and fewer staff employees.

I've recently received several letters about their request not being answered. Remember when requesting anything from the Courthouse, you have a better chance of receiving your information if you keep your queries to a minimum. One item might be answered, but a list of items will almost always find it's way to the bottom of the in-basket.