Vital Records
England & Wales
FreeBMD - Civil Registration index of Births, Marriages, Deaths (England & Wales) - images now available!: http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/
Canada
- British Columbia Canada Vital Event Indexes: http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/textual/governmt/vstats/v_events.htm#indexes
- Saskatchewan BMD Index: http://vsgs.health.gov.sk.ca/vsgs_srch.aspx
Births more than 100 years ago; Deaths and Marriages more than 75 years ago soon - Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics - Births & Deaths 1864-1877, + Deaths 1908-1955, Marriages 1864-1930: https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com (full-sized copies available for a fee)
Australia
Queensland, Australia: Birth, Marriage, and Death Records 1829-1914: http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/bdm/IndexSearch.htm
United States
InfoAviator is a way to access free online public records, from the Federal to local level. Search by locality, not surname. http://infoaviator.com/
US Social Security Death Index: http://ssdi.rootsweb.com
Ancestry's SSDI: http://ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm.
Family Tree Magazine says: "Pearl Street Software, the makers of Family Tree Legends, launched a new free Social Security Death Index (SSDI) search engine at http://www.familytreelegends.com/ssdi. The SSDI, generated by the US Social Security Administration (SSA), holds valuable genealogical information—including name, birth and death dates, Social Security number and last-known residence—for all Americans who possessed Social Security numbers and whose deaths were reported to the SSA after 1936. Like other online SSDI search engines, Family Tree Legends' version lets you look for relatives by name and social security number and last residence. It also boasts two unique—and especially useful—features: an age-at-death search and a year-range search, which means you don't have to know the exact year someone died." (http://net.fwpublications.com/newsletters/NewsletterArchive/Family_Tree_Magazine_E-Mail_Update/6_5_2003.htm)
New England Ancestors is now keeping a FREE up-to-date SSDI available: http://newenglandancestors.org/research/database/ss/default.asp
Steve Morse makes it possible to search 5 different versions of the SSDI here: http://stevemorse.org/ssdi/ssdi.html
Rootsweb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees -- Using the SSDI: http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson10.htm
Public Records Online Directory is a Portal to official state web sites, and those Tax Assessors' and Recorders' offices that have developed web sites for the retrieval of available public records over the internet. For example, some Recorders' offices have marriage and birth records available online. Although not every county and parish has data online, many have home pages, and where neither is available a phone number has been provided: http://www.netronline.com/public_records.htm
Early Birth Records (197225 births): http://userdb.rootsweb.com/births/
Arizona births 1887-1928, deaths 1878-1953, certificates as PDF files: http://genealogy.az.gov/
California Births 1905-1995, 24 million records: http://www.vitalsearch-ca.com/gen/ca/_vitals/cabirthm.htm
(Username vitalguest, password enjoy, or use: http://www.vitalsearch-ca.com/gen/frmguestpass_v01.htm)
San Francisco, California Genealogy: http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/
Nice gateway to Northern CA research: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~yvonne/norcallib.html
Early California Population Project (ECPP) - sacramental register index (baptismal, marriage, and death records) from California's 21 missions, 110,000 Californians between 1769 -1850: http://www.huntington.org/
Colorado State Archives: Online Indexes - unique items, such as voter registrations, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Enrollment Index, inheritance tax, and old-age pensions. Indexes and search: http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/hrd/
Indiana Marriages through 1850 (and much, much more): http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/isl/whatwehave/dbindex.html
Western States Historical Marriage Record Index: http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/search.cfm
Early Utah Marriages (1851-1884): http://www.infouga.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=9&id=56&Itemid=82
Death Records Search: http://www.death-records.net/
Arizona Deaths 1878-1953: http://genealogy.az.gov/
California Deaths, 1940-1997: http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi
Los Angeles County Burial Permits 1870-1892: http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/LA-Co-Burial.htm
Illinois Death Certificates, 1916-1950: http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/idphdeathindex.html
Genealogy in the Illinois State Archives: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/services.html
Kentucky Deaths, 1911-2000 (2,921,383 records) : http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ky/death/search.cgi
Kentucky Vital Records Project (79,869 death records; actual D.C.s online): http://kyvitals.com/
Also see Kentucky Vital Records Index which also has divorces: http://ukcc.uky.edu/~vitalrec/
Maine Deaths, 1960-1997: http://vitals.rootsweb.com/me/death/search.cgi
Maryland Deaths 1898-1944: http://mdvitalrec.net/cfm/index.cfm
Massachusetts Death Index 1841-1910: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/vitalrecordssearch/VitalRecordsSearch.aspx
Michigan Genealogical Death Indexing System, 1867-1897: http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/gendisx/search2.htm
Michigan Marriages (Dibean Michigan Marriage Index): http://www.mifamilyhistory.org/dibeanindex/default.asp
Minnesota Birth Certificate Index 1900-1907: http://people.mnhs.org/bci/
Minnesota Death Certificates, 1907-1996: http://people.mnhs.org/dci/Search.cfm
Missouri Birth & Death Records Database: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/birthdeath/Default.asp
Montana Deaths: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mtmsgs/death_records.htm
New Mexico Death Index 1899-1940: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/nm/nmdi.htm
New York City Death Records Search 1891-1911: http://www.italiangen.org/NYCDeathSearch.stm
New York State Vital Records: http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/consumer/vr.htm
Ohio Death Certificates, 1913-1937: http://www.ohiohistory.org/dindex/
Oregon Historical Records Index: http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/banners/genlist.htm
http://www.heritagetrailpress.com/Death_Index/
South Dakota Birth Records: http://www.state.sd.us/applications/PH14Over100BirthRec/index.asp
Tennessee Vital Records: http://www.state.tn.us/sos/statelib/pubsvs/intro.htm#vital_records
Texas Deaths 1964-1998: http://vitals.rootsweb.com/tx/death/search.cgi
Texas Vital Records FAQ: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/arc/vitalfaq.html
Utah Death Certificates 1905-1954 (250,000+ records): http://historyresearch.utah.gov/indexes/index.html
West Virginia Vital Records: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/
Registration is required, but free; actual records can be examined
Wisconsin Vital Records before 1907: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/vitalrecords/
US Vital Records Information: http://www.vitalrec.com/
Public Record Locator: http://searchsystems.net/
It's always worth checking with your county or state of interest in USGenWeb, http://usgenweb.org. Often volunteers have births, deaths, marriages, cemetery, divorce, and other records.
Evidence and Sources--And How They Differ: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A165713
Vital Records in the United States: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A202011
Beware of Secondary Sources!: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A121701
Tombstones are Secondary Sources: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/prodredir.asp?sourceid=831&key=A284006
Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. - Robert F. Kennedy
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