The Colony of Virginia passed an act for the collection of vital statistics, requiring the recording of births and deaths, when a law directed ministers or churchwardens in each parish to present a “register of all burials, christenings, and marriages” yearly at the June meeting of the court. A similar act passed in 1659 stated that “enquiries are often made for persons imported into the colony, of whose death no positive certificate can be granted for want of registers.” Few records survive from these early decades.
References:
- http://www.commed.vcu.edu/IntroPH/Introduction/jefflhistoryphva04.pdf
- http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/rn2_vitalstats.htm
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