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Your Guide to Using
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In the United States the keeping of vital records varies from state to state. In general they are most consistently kept by the county, but after a certain date (which varies from state to state) the records are also kept by the state government. In New England states vital records were (and still are) kept by the town rather than the county. New York also has some town and village vital records. Sometimes records will be kept by the city government, usually that is the case only when a large city. Availablity and freedom of access to these records varies from state to state, county to county and city to city. We wold like a birth, marriage and death record for each of our ancestors -- but in fact, we will have all three for very few and many will have none of the three. Take these more comprehensive lessons in locating and using Vital Records:
Birth RecordsBirth records were usually the last of the three to be consistently recorded. Further, due to concerns about identity theft they are the morerestricted of the records. When available, a birth certificate provides evidence of the parentage, date and place of birth and a variety of other information, depending on the requirements of the jurisdiction in charge. See: Family Search Wiki U.S. Birth Records for more inforamation.
Marriage RecordsMarriage records serve a number of legal purposes. In addition to legitimizing the birth of children, they carried legal weight as to ownership and rights, as well as protection against bigamy. Thus many states recorded marriages earlier than birth or death records. Information on marriage records may include only the names of the bride and groom and name and position of person who married them. However they usually contain ages and may contain substantially more information. There are also records associated with a marriage -- for example, bonds given, banns read or licenses applied for. For more information, see Family Search Wiki: U.S. Marriage Records. See also Gretna Greens in the United States.
Death RecordsDeath records will give us the date of death, usually also the place, cause and sometimes more information about the person. See the Family Search Wiki: U.S. Death Records Divorce RecordsDivorce records are public records and access should not be restricted in the United States. Some early divorces were granted by the legislature, but for the better part of our history have been settled through the courts. Because laws specified the only causes for which a divorce might be granted we always have to wonder how much of the reasons given were truth and how much was an agreed upon falsehood acceptable to both parties in order to obtain the desired result. See Family Search Wiki: U.S. Divorce Records. for more information. Locating and Obtaining vital records:The records are kept at the state office designated to retain jurisdictin over them and at the county courthousees and in some cities. Inmost cases the earlier records will be only at the courthouse. Many vital records have been filmed by the Family History Library. Check the catalog to see what records have been filmed for the area you are researching. The most useful site is probably the one at VitalRec.com. -- it is useful because it is a quick and easy (but more costly) way to order records, but it also gives a link to the official state site, where you can sometimes find indexes or even online records, as well as information on how to order directly from the counties and other helpful links. You have to scroll down to get all the information.
Some helpful books you can consult: The County Courthouse Book is especially useful if you plan to contact or visit the courthouse to obtain your records. The International Vital Records Handbook is helpful if you need to order a record from a state or international government.
More links at : US Vital Records @ Cyndislist |
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This page last updated May 8, 2011
