2952 Not Cheap

No wonder so many people depend on the internet to do genealogy. Yesterday I went to the court house and got copies with the official stamp of 8 birth certificates, 3 death certificates and one marriage license, and it cost $97! Wow. I had no idea. We went in the wrong building first, made some inquiries about genealogy, and were ushered into a small room with a film reader. But when I said I wanted birth certificates she said I had to go to the "county building" (I thought I was there), that she had only the criminal stuff! So I must have looked like someone checking out the skeletons in the closets. We said we didn't think we'd find any relatives in her department and went across the street.

I think everyone around here goes to Rockford or Freeport (different counties) to die, so the sources were limited, which is probably good considering how much I had to pay.