Abstract Statistics of orbital parameters of binary stars as well as statistics of their physical characteristics bear traces of star formation history. However, statistical investigations of binaries are complicated by incomplete or missing observational data and by a number of observational selection effects. Visual binaries are the most common type of observed binary stars, with the number of pairs exceeding 130 000. The most complete list of presently known visual binary stars was compiled by cross-matching objects and combining data of the three largest catalogues of visual binaries. This list was supplemented by the data on parallaxes, multicolor photometry, and spectral characteristics taken from other catalogues. This allowed us to compensate partly for the lack of observational data for these objects. The combined data allowed us to check the validity of observational values and to investigate statistics of the orbital and physical parameters of visual binaries. Corrections for incompleteness of observational data are discussed. The datasets obtained, together with modern distributions of binary parameters, will be used to reconstruct the initial distributions and parameters of the function of star formation for binary systems.