The United States of America is a baby. A lot of states in the US didn’t start requiring birth and death records to be tracked until 1915! This means a lot of genealogy work in the US from 1776-1914 includes using different methods. On top of that, every state has their own law about the public record information for these vitals.
Alabama drives me the most mad, of any of the states I’ve worked to get the vital birth certificates from. Alabama’s requirement began 1908. Great – my great-grandmother was born 1914. Alabama should have a birth certificate for her. She’s on an index, which is handy, and really all I need to confirm her DOB. But the actual certificates can be treasure troves of additional information. 1914 may have less, but still. I want it.
Alabama has 125 years after birth rule before the certificates themselves can be requested as public record. So they don’t exist anywhere online at all. OK, fine. Not uncommon. Funny though, because that means absolutely no Alabama birth records are public record yet. We still have 10 years before that happens.
However, vital certificates can be requested before they are public record if conditions are met. (Which is good because some states will never make these vitals public record. You can find that information here: BIRTH RECORDS and DEATH RECORDS – although don’t get discouraged. It might still be something you can find in other ways.) But ALABAMA? Immediate family only: parents, siblings, children, or spouse…. No grandchild.
They are one of the only states with such a long waiting period that doesn’t even allow GRANDCHILDREN to get these records. That means my 80-something year old grandma can request her mother’s records. But if something happened to her, I’d be trying to get into contact with one of her siblings to request it. And I’m lucky that there are so many of them. What if my 80-something year old grandmother passed away and she didn’t have half a dozen surviving siblings? Well, looks like I’d be SOL. I’m sure at THAT point, you can make a court request and do a whole thing. But my god.
Their one pro is that they’re one of the cheaper states. They ask for $15 for the record (they take it either way – it’s called a “search fee”). California is between $23-27, depending the county. Michigan is $34!!! Which, rude. No discounts on multiple family members either, lol. More than double Alabama.
I did want to get as many actual records as I could. Best way to do that, I think, is what I’m working on:
- Get a list of ancestors with their DOB and DOD. I used WikiTree to create a list of ancestors – you can also use any genealogy software that exports people this way. Might be easier, even. Make sure it also includes where they were born. You’ll want state and year.
- I used the free resource from FamilyTree Magazine to see which states starting collecting birth and death records.
- Comparing these (I love using VLookup for anything I can), I was able to have a list of ancestors who could have a record on file somewhere. It was not necessarily easy to get this PDF into an excel format, but it wasn’t impossible.
- Then I marked off ancestors I already had. Thankfully I have several Missouri death certificates from someone else having stuck copies in a binder I got from my aunt – perfect because Missouri’s won’t be online.
- For the remaining, I tried to see who I could access on ancestry, familysearch, or the individual state website. I’d also suggest looking at photos of ancestors on ancestry, if you have that. And the “memories” tab of familysearch. People who have requested or ended up with these records might sometimes upload them. I can’t say for sure, since I’m not sure of the legality of it, but MAYBE some people do it anyway 😉
Here are some sites that can help direct you where to go to see if they are online. Arizona, for example, has a searchable database where you can pull up the image of ones over a certain number of years old.- https://www.thoughtco.com/vital-records-online-by-state-1422785
- https://www.archives.gov/research/vital-records
- https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/United_States_Vital_Records
- For an example, Missouri death records are here. You just type in a last name and boom! Pretty cool: https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/Archives/ArchivesMvc/DeathCertificates The searches are my favorite because you can find family members you didn’t know about – esp stillborns or children who died young.
- OK, now you should have your list of items to request. You can first check with family members: it is likely someone has grandpa’s death or birth record. Once you’ve exhausted that…
- Google “request STATE birth certificate” or death. Make sure you go to the .gov website. From there, you can print forms to mail in. Read requirements carefully – for California death certificates for my grandparents, I had to get a notary to sign off that I was, indeed, who my ID says I am. Alabama won’t let a grandchild GET ANYTHING. HATE U ALABAMA. They don’t require a notary, but they do require you to send a copy of your ID. Sometimes you only need to provide your ID within timeframes – for example, Michigan requires my ID for my grandmother’s birth record, but not for my great-grandmother, since that was over 100 years ago.
If you’re thinking “Why would I want the death/birth certificate for my ancestor if I know the date?” Death certificates seem obvious – there is a TON of information on those, most notably cause of death. My grandmother’s even had her college education level! Birth certificates may give you a surprise at where someone was living at the time, or the occupation listed for the father. Or in the case of my grandfather, their name might be “Homer Jude” instead of “Tad”, and it explains why the initial searches for his birth record aren’t easy to locate. Our ancestors were real wild cards.
I don’t request any of them to be certified. I’m only doing it for genealogy research.
And as a reminder, records can be wrong about some of their info. My great-grandfather John Horak had a delayed birth record issued late in his life. Usually the requirements for that are pretty strict and you can trust it. But it looks like Iowa just went off his sister’s word of mouth that her 5-year old self at the time was able to remember. Says he was born in Iowa. Meanwhile every single early record of his states he was born in Kansas. I wonder if it was easier to get a delayed certificate issued in Iowa vs Kansas? Either way.
Death records are often wrong with information like date of birth, parents names. Usually a grieving family member is giving this information, if you’re lucky, and we all get names mixed up when we’re upset. Other times you get “Unknown” across the record, which SUCKS. But they’re the most reliable source we can ask for as far as their date and location of birth (for birth certificates that are NOT 60 years delayed in Iowa with no proof required), or date and location of death.
One last site that has good links and resources for this stuff: https://www.archives.gov/research/vital-records
It’s also encouraged you make yourself little toolkits for each state your ancestors lived in. This can be a great start for that. I’ve gotta compile my Missouri toolkit, Iowa toolkit, etc. That way you can jump into your research without spending hours sorting through the 50 different states.
If anyone has any suggestions/ideas/additional resources, let me know! I am open ears.
Lonely Family History 