Locating United States Vital Records

Locating Records
Birth, marriage, divorce, and death records may be obtained by contacting or visiting state offices of vital records or the appropriate clerk's office in a town or county courthouse. Genealogical societies, historical societies, and state archives may also have copies or transcripts. To protect the rights of privacy of living persons, most modern records have restrictions on their use and access.

Current addresses and fees for obtaining vital records are given in:


 * Where to Write for Vital Records: Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Divorces. Hyattsville, Maryland: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, March 1993. Some addresses and fees are outdated. This booklet can be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402-9328.

Another helpful source of current fee information is:


 * Kemp, Thomas J. International Vital Records Handbook. Third Edition. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1994. (Family History Library book 973 V24k 1994.) This includes samples of application forms that can be sent to state offices to request copies of vital records. It also provides telephone ordering numbers for most offices. Payment by bank card is generally accepted.

The Family History Library also has a guide to Vital Records in the United States that is frequently updated (not available at Family History Centers).

How to Request a Record
After deciding who has jurisdiction over the records for the time period you need, write a brief request to the proper office. Some offices will require that you submit a standard search application form. Send the following:


 * Check or money order for the search fee ($1 to $15)
 * Full name and the sex of the person sought
 * Names of the parents, if known
 * Approximate date and place of the event
 * Your relationship to the person
 * Reason for the request (family history, medical, etc.)
 * Request for a photocopy of the complete original record

If your request is unsuccessful, search for duplicate records that may have been filed in a city, county, or state office.

Records at the Family History Library
The Family History Library has copies of many vital records, primarily those before 1920. However, if a record was never kept, was not available in the courthouse at the time of microfilming, was not microfilmed, or is restricted from public access by the laws of the state, the Family History Library does not have a copy. You may use the records at the library for your family research, but the library does not issue or certify certificates for living or deceased individuals.

Vital records can be found in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under each of the following approaches:


 * [STATE] - VITAL RECORDS
 * [STATE] - [COUNTY] - VITAL RECORDS
 * [STATE] [COUNTY], [TOWN] - VITAL RECORDS

You can find further information about vital records in research pages available for each state on the wiki.

The Family History Library has statewide collections and special indexes of vital records for most states. The library has good collections of county vital records for several states.

Main Sources

 * Birth records
 * Marriage records
 * Divorce records
 * Death records

Substitute Sources

 * Creation of Civil Records
 * Regional Difference in Records
 * Bible Records
 * Cemetery
 * US Census
 * Military Records
 * Mortality Census
 * Newspapers
 * 1900 Census
 * Obituaries
 * Probate Records
 * Social Security Death Index (SSDI)