Here Are More Links To Data

Vital records are exactly that - vital. We need access to them. And public records are - public. Thousands of copies of vital or public records are requested daily. But what if you don’t know how and where to gain access to them?

Here are three new sources:

Tim and Gay Wall of Eagle Eye Research offer an information retrieval service. They can contact long-lost relatives or missing friends - folks still living - with their access to 15,000 on-line databases.

Perhaps anyone with a computer and modem could access these same sources - those with the know-how or the time to learn. But since most databases charge a stiff fee, Eagle Eye Research might be the way to go, Tim Wall says. He’s aware of all the on-line genealogy databases and knows more become available daily. And most folks don’t realize how many federal government informational databases are available on-line, he says.

His portfolio of search avenues keeps expanding and he hopes to soon add an international obituary file.

Contact Eagle Eye Research at HCR 1, Box 241, Naples, ID 83847, or call (208) 267-8125. Their e-mail address is FHGarden@aol.com.

Robert Berkos Co. has produced that old genealogy standby, Where to Write for Vital Records, for years. It now offers an updated, expanded version, How to Find People With Information from Public Records.

There is the roster of U.S. states and territories, with addresses, phone numbers and costs of copies for vital records - but that’s only 35 of the book’s 190 pages.

One chapter has “Using Public Records to Find Anyone,” another tells how to find records for people born or who’ve died outside the U.S. There’s a section of forms to request various records (birth, marriage, divorce, death, baptismal, hospital, school, voters, Social Security, etc). This book, from Consumer Education Research Center, can be ordered for $19.95 at 1980 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, N.J. 07040; or phone (201) 275-3955; or fax (201) 275-3980.

Caution: Fees for some copies of records are listed incorrectly. Many states have substantially raised their fees, but these increases aren’t shown in the ‘95 edition.

The last vital records information source is a CD ROM, Vital Records Assistant. This Windows-based program automates the process of requesting copies of birth, death, marriage or divorce certificates.

Pop the disk into your PC’s CD ROM drive and click to specify the state and record you desire. Then, just as quickly, print out a request letter for a copy of that record.

Vital Records Assistant also provides phone numbers for each state’s division of vital statistics, plus information for Guam and Puerto Rico. Similar information is provided for more than 3,000 county offices.

In addition to the fee, the acceptable form of payment, credit card fees, rush charges and expected processing time are all given.

Vital Records Assistant, $24.95 plus $3 shipping, can be ordered from GenRef Inc., 874 West 1400 North, Orem UT 84057-2916; or call (801) 225-3256. Ask that your name go on their mailing list for future genealogy-related CD releases.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review