Instructions for Birth Records

What are Birth Records and How Do You Recognize Them?

Birth records are historical or administrative records that record an individual’s birth. They can vary in format depending on the country, time period, and institution that issued them.

Birth records typically serve as a record of:

• Name of person born 

• Name of mother and/or father 

• Date of birth 

• Location of birth 

Birth records often have a standardized format and may include:

• A ledger or register book with multiple entries per page 

• Typed or handwritten entries 

• Headers like: 

• “Surname or Family Name”  

• “First Name or Christian Name” 

• “Sex of Child” 

• “Date of Birth” 

• “Name of Mother” 

• “Name of Father” 

• “Place of Birth” 

Keywords

Here are a comprehensive list of common English terms and their equivalents in the languages wherein these records are written, using terminology typically found on historical or official documents. The languages were selected based on the entities in different countries that created birth records.

Natural Group

Birth records may be part of a larger archival collection. Most institutions follow a hierarchical archival system, so when digitizing birth records, it’s important to understand how the records are currently stored.

At the archive, birth records may be grouped hierarchically starting with any, but not all, of these levels:

• Chronological order (e.g., 1914–1946) 

• Alphabetical by surname or family name. 

• Location (municipality or other geographic division) 

Descriptive Metadata

The record type is a distinctive class of records, as defined by their use or function, used to document events. The record type should match the event(s) recorded on the page.

For covers (front and back) and any blank pages following the front cover or preceding the back cover, including the title page and the opening and closing statements, use the record type Administrative Image.

1. Date: Enter the Year 
   
   • If the lowest hierarchical level constitutes records from specific months, then include the months with the year, e.g., Jan-Feb 1911. 
   • If the lowest hierarchical level constitutes records from a single specific month, then include the month with the year, e.g., May 1884. 
2. Locality: Enter the city/town/village in which the birth records are located.  
3. Creator: Using the language of the records, enter the  government office which created the birth records (the Record Custodian and Creator may be the same depending on where the records are currently stored). 
4. Volume: Enter the surname ranges and/or volume numbers that constitute the natural group: 
   
   • Birth Records 
     
     • 1888 
     • A–C 
     • Arnold-Clark 
5. Title: Enter the respective title using the language of the records.  
6. Custodian Reference ID: Enter the ID in the format relevant to the archive.