Barren County, KY Births

Dr. William L. Sutton of Georgetown, KY, first President of the KY State Medical Association, was the father of Vital Statistics in the state of KY. Kentucky was the first state west of the Alleghenies to have a law requring the registration of births, marriage and deaths, passed January 9, 1852. However, due to the political uphevels of the era, the recording of vitals was discontinued during the Civil War. Other attempts were made sporadically by each individual county after 1865. In 1911 recording Birth and Death records, via Certificates, became law in Kentucky.

The 1852 law required clergymen, magistrates, physicians, surgeons and mid-wives to keep records and deposit these on or before January 10 of each year. This would generate the first set of possible errors in recording the data as the information would often be recorded in the year it was submitted, when in actuality it was from the previous year. The second set of errors could possibly occur as the clerk entered the data, transposing information, and the third set of errors could possibly occur as the clerk's documents were copied in 1935 as a WPA project, when the Kentucky Historical Society began to salvage the remnents of the records kept during the decade from 1852-1862.

Birth Records for 1852-1859, 1861, & 1878 from the Vital Statistics Microfilm have been published by Gorin Publishing of Barren Co, KY. The book includes names of over 4700 children, both white and black. The original information is housed at the KY State Archives in Frankfort, KY.

1911-1920 Births

Files contributed by Nancy Trice

Over 7800 Births Recorded!!

KY Office of Vital Statistics