Certificate For Family
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Once you decide to research your family history, choose one person to start with to keep things easy. Begin by obtaining the birth certificate and/or death certificate first as they are the best sources of information about that ancestor. These records will provide you with the names of parents, spouse and potentially other family members (informants) as well as locations and dates.
1. Find the full name of the person you are researching, including the maiden name for a woman’s birth record or the last married name in the case of a death certificate. If you know the full name, move on to the next step.
If you don’t know the full name:
Maiden names are also located on marriage records. Check free online marriage indexes for these. Use a search engine or check free genealogy index web sites (see links below).
If you have or can obtain census records but don’t know the wife’s maiden name, check to see if there are any family members, such as “brother” living with the family who have a different surname.
Obituaries also often include maiden names. Also check with other family members, letters, cards or family bibles
2. Locate where the event took place. If you don’t know, there are several ways to find out:
Use a search engine to research your relative’s name. This will not work if the name is common, such as Mary Brown, but may work for an unusual name.
Search online family trees; these frequently provide locations and date. Verify the information by obtaining the vital record as many online family trees contain information that is inaccurate.
Check the online Social Security Death Index at a free site. Search online cemetery transcriptions which can be found using your search engine or on a genealogy index site.
3. Obtain the date of the event if you don’t already have it.
Check to see if the state or county where the event took place has an online Birth or Death Index. If not, call the library in the appropriate city. Often a main branch will have copies of birth and death indexes.
4.Check tombstone inscriptions, the Social Scurity Death Index or census records to get a year, if not the exact date. Research city directories, normally archived at the main branch of the library, to narrow a date down to the correct year. I used city directories to see what year a relative went from having one last name to another.
Apply for the certificate: with the above information, contact the appropriate agency, complete their application and send or email it in, along with the applicable fee.
If the agency is at the county level, check with the county recorder or clerk. At the state level, contact the Department of Health or Vital Statistics. Some, like parts of New York, are by city. The jurisdictions vary by state.
The address to send it to and fees are usually easy to find by using your search engine, though some genealogy index sites provide that information on each county or state page on their site.
Frequently, applications to request certificates are online along with the agency’s fee schedule. It also may be faster to order it online. Alternatively, some sites have the application you can download, print and mail in.
How long it will take for you to receive it varies widely. Expect to wait at least four to six weeks; the larger municipalities take longer: New York City may take up to six months.