Gather basic information on the ancestor. Ironically, tracking down a birth certificate may require already knowing most of the information you hope to find in the record. (It’s still worth the search to confirm what you think you know about an ancestor in primary sources.) Besides your ancestor’s name, you’ll need at least an educated guess about place and date of birth.
If you don’t know this information, try looking in family letters and other papers, your clan’s Bible, newspaper birth announcements and obituaries, and church and military records. You can even tap sources such as online family trees and pedigree databases.
Find out when vital records start. Investigate when your ancestor’s hometown began keeping birth records by consulting a reference such as The Family Tree Sourcebook or Red Book: American State, County, and Town Resources. You may also find information on the county government’s website.
Note that this date isn’t necessarily the same year statewide record-keeping began. In most places in the United States, you’ll look for the date your ancestor’s county started keeping records, which may be earlier than the state-mandated date.
You will need to ensure you’ve got the right place on today’s map. County borders and names changed as the nation grew. Use the online Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/, to investigate changing borders where your kin lived.
Figure out where to look. Copies of birth records may be at both the state and county levels, or the location may depend on the date. Some states keep recent records in the vital records office or a health department, but some transferred old records to a state archive. Consult Where to Write for Vital Records., https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w/index.htm?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fnchs%2Fw2w.htmLinks generally take you to the state government website for more-detailed information.
If you’re lucky, you can find online records or an index that will help you request a copy of the record. Genealogy sites like Ancestry.com, Archives.com, or FamilySearch.org may have birth records and/or indexes. Or run a Google search on the state, county, or town and birth records genealogy.
Make the request. Closely follow the repository’s instructions for requesting a birth record. You may have to complete a form with enough information for the office to find your ancestor’s record: full name, sex, date and place of birth, and parents’ names (if known). You will typically pay a fee and might have to include a photocopy of your driver’s license. Be sure to mention you want the record for genealogical purposes and describe your relationship to the person whose record it is.
Another option is to order records online using a service such as VitalChek, though these sites’ fees are higher than those charged by state agencies. If all goes well, you’ll have a copy of your ancestor’s birth certificate within the time frame specified on the government office website.
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