Rich County (Utah). County Clerk

These records document "birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, dissolution of marriage, or annulment." (Utah Code 26-2-2(20)(2014)) Documents may include registered certification or reports, applications, official registers and other similar records.

This series contains a register recording deaths from 1898 to 1901 and births from 1898 to 1905 and 1912. Entries in the death register portion include such information as decedent's name, date and place of death, length of residence in the county, sex, color, race or nativity, age, occupation, cause of death, marital status, and last place of residence. Entries in the birth register portion include such information as birth date, sex, color, race, parents' names, and place of residence. This series also includes a newspaper clipping reporting a death in 1887. Since official registers for deaths and births were created, it is unclear what purpose this combined book served.

Beginning in 1898, state law required that physicians, clergymen, justices of the peace, and undertakers to report deaths they attended or with which they dealt. Physicians and midwives were also required to keep record of each birth at which they assisted professionally. Each person registering deaths or births filed quarterly with the county clerk or the local board of health in the case of incorporated cities. (Revised Statutes of Utah 1898, Title 57, p. 474-475) Despite these requirements, not all deaths and births were recorded.

In 1905, the state passed a law requiring each county to file uniform death and birth certificates with the State Bureau of Vital Statistics and that reporting system superseded the maintenance of the death and birth registers.