Birth Certificates – The Genealogical Goldmine

You are researching your family tree and you have run up against a brick wall. You have spoken to everyone you can find in your family and have scoured photo albums, attics, and shoe boxes to find any documentation to be had about your family. Where do you look next?

Your next most effective tool for tracking down your family history is through vital records, particularly birth certificates. Since birth certificates are very private documents, they can be difficult to obtain, but they can also contain a wealth of information if they were filled out properly so it is well worth the trouble of getting a copy of them.

Whose birth certificate do you look for? Start where you left off with your living relatives. If your grandfather is the oldest living relative you spoke with and he does not have a copy of his birth certificate, look for that one, or for his father’s birth certificate. The information available on a properly filled out document includes:

• Name, race, and gender of the child
• Place and date of birth
• Name of father
• Name of mother (including maiden name)

The certificate may also include the following information:

• Age, race, occupation, and place of birth of both mother and father
• The number of children in the family and the number this child is in the family
• Witnesses to the birth

This information can be invaluable in tracking down long lost siblings, completing the information for different branches of the family, and most of all for providing the names of the parents, the previous generation, so that you can then move on and locate their birth certificates. The mother’s maiden name is especially a boon, because then you can look up her family.

To obtain a copy of a birth certificate, you will need to contact the records office in the area where the birth took place. You will need to provide information including:

• Full name at birth
• Date of birth
• City or county of birth
• Mother’s and father’s full name
• Your relationship to the individual
• Your contact information

You may need to provide picture ID and proof of your relationship with the person whose birth certificate you want and they may only release the certificate to immediate family members. They may also require the person be deceased for a certain period before issuing a certificate and may require a copy of the death certificate as proof.

A birth certificate may seem like a nuisance to get your hands on, but you will reap the benefits of the information you can find. Unfortunately, they may not always be complete or reliable, as the information that does not pertain to the actual birth is generally filled in by the parents and may be lacking or inaccurate or may be filled in at a later date. Despite this, birth certificates may still be your best source of information to search for information on your family history.