The Best Places to Check for Ancestors' Records

Vital and Religious Records

Now you're ready to search for the records your ancestors have left behind. The first place to go is to your relatives. Ask them to look for any official records they may have. Carefully look over the documents. Have you found new names? Addresses? Dates of important events? Some of this information will help you find other documents.

Vital Records
When you're ready to go outside the family, begin with the most common documents: Vital records — birth, marriage, and death certificates.

Everyone is born, and everyone dies. That's one reason why birth and death certificates (vital records) are among the easiest and best places to begin searching for family documents.

Vital records often have lots of information, including hard-to-locate maiden names and addresses. Birth certificates include facts about the child's parents; death certificates, filled out by relatives, often give facts about survivors.

When you start to look for your family's vital records, begin with your parents' birth and marriage certificates. Then start looking for your grandparents' documents. Move slowly backward in time.

Where to Look: Vital records are local records. They are usually kept in the capital of the county where someone lived, though some states keep them in their capital cities. If your ancestors lived in the same state as you do, your parents may be able to tell you where to write for their records. If you're searching in another state, or if you don't know where to go, the fastest way to discover where your ancestors' vital records are is to look in a booklet called "Where to Write for Vital Records." It lists every state and explains where to find birth, marriage, divorce, and death records. To get a copy, write to the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. There is a small charge. Excerpts from the 1990 edition are reprinted in the Appendix. When you find out where the records are kept, send for them by indicating the name of the person whose records you are looking for, and the actual or approximate date (you should at least have a year) when you believe an event happened. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope with your request. The clerk will conduct a search, and if the records exist they will be sent to you — usually after you pay a fee — within a few weeks.

Religious Records
Vital records, as important as they are, were not kept formally by many states before about 1900. If you're looking for people who lived long before that year, you may not find any government records of their birth and death.

However, there is another place that may have some of your ancestors' vital records. If you're lucky enough to know what religious institution those family members attended, there may be something of interest in their records. Many churches and synagogues kept notations about their members' births, christenings, marriages, and deaths.

Where to Look: This may take some detective work. If you know your ancestors' religious affiliation, check see if there are any institutions of that type in the place where they lived.

If you are able to determine where your ancestor worshipped, write the office there. Explain that you are conducting a family history search, and list the names you are researching, the dates of their lives, and the years you believe they might have belonged to the church or synagogue. "If you have any records of my ancestor, I would be most interested in seeing them. Please let me know if there is any fee." As always, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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