State Websites Provide Access to Vital Records
The Trick is in How to Find Them
Vital records are records kept by the government about major life events. They include birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates. The information they provide is vital for genealogical research: it is essential for anything past what information can be garnered from relatives, and a solid vital record can seal the deal for an ambiguous or hazy lineage. You may even want to use vital records to confirm information recalled from relatives, whose recounting may not be as accurate as you would like.
Vital Records and State Websites
Vital records are normally collected and retained at the state level. As such, state websites are a good place to start your search for such records. As obvious as it may sound, vital records retained by each state only cover events that occurred in that state—this means that you must have an idea of which state(s) your ancestor was born, died, or married in.
The access to vital records varies according to state: different states have different rules for obtaining vital records. In most states, recent vital records are confidential, meaning that they will only be accessible to the person whom it pertains to or to that person’s parent/guardian. However, some states will allow access to others who do not fit these descriptions, but they may provide a special version of the record (as in California) or may require a formal, written ‘Genealogy Request,’ such as in Hawaii.
At some point, all vital records become public records, making them freely accessible to the public. Depending on the state, however, how long a vital record is kept private can vary. For example, in Alaska birth records are made public 100 years after the event, while in Delaware, this number is 72. How far back vital records are available also differs according to state, since the laws governing the collection and preservation of such records are state laws.
How to Find Vital Records Information
As we have seen, what records are available and what must be done to access them will be specific to the state you are interested in. Most state websites have a search tool somewhere on the homepage; a quick typing and searching of ‘Vital Records’ will often get you to the page that contains such information. For many state websites, vital records are not immediately available online; they will, however, describe the details of accessing the records for that state.
It is also important to note that for most cases, requests for copies of vital records will be associated with some sort of administrative fee.
An Alternative Route: Public Records Databases
The search for vital records on state websites is certainly not a streamlined one. If your search spans many states, or worse, you aren’t sure which state to look in, the search may become overwhelming. As a result, there have been some efforts to make the search more convenient by providing a public records database online. For example, the Records Project not only allows you to search for a specific record for a certain state/county but also provides a central source of information on how to obtain records by state.
Vital records are crucial for your family tree research. Familiarizing yourself with state websites may be the key to a successful search.
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