Vital records, as their name suggests, are connected with central life events: birth, marriage, and death. Maintained by civil authorities, they are prime sources of genealogical information; but, unfortunately, official vital records are available only for relatively recent periods. These records, despite their recent creation in the United States, are critically important in genealogical research, often supplying details on family members well back into the nineteenth century. The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, by Loretto Szucs and Sandra Luebking.
Vital Records Section
State Department of Health
1330 West Michigan Street
PO Box 7125
Indianapolis, IN 46206-7125
Additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time are $1.00 each. For earlier records, write to Health Officer in city or county where event occurred.
Check or money order should be made payable to Indiana State Department of Health. Personal checks are accepted. To verify current fees, the telephone number is (317) 383-6274 . Information on how to obtain certified copies is also available at: http://www.in.gov/isdh/
Ancestry.com Indiana State Database
A large collection of databases of births, deaths, marriages, census, obituaries, directories, estate records, and service records. Get 14 Days Free Access!!!
Births
State office has birth records beginning October 1907. Cost: $10.00
Deaths
State office has death records beginning October 1907. Cost: $8.00
Browning Genealogy Databases
The Browning Genealogy Database is the lifetime work of Charles Browning, who compiled the obituary records of Vanderburgh County and surrounding southwestern Indiana from the Evansville newspapers: The Evansville Courier, The Evansville Press, and now The Evansville Courier and Press.
Divorce
Write to County Clerk in city or county where divorce was granted.
Marriages
Ancestry.com Indiana Marriages to 1850
This database of Indiana marriages to 1850 contains nearly 200,000 names. Each entry includes groom, bride, marriage date, county, and state. Every name is indexed so you can search for one name, or two names that are linked.
The marriage date is usually the date of marriage as given in the original entry. However, when no marriage date is given (e.g., the “marriage return” was not provided to the record keeper), the date of the license is used. In a few cases, a marriage will be listed twice, but in two different counties. This most often happened when a couple obtained a license in one county, but were actually married in another. (Free Database)
Marriage index since 1958 for some counties. Certified copies are not available from State Health Department or State Library but must be obtained from county where event occurred.
Database to an Index of Indiana Marriages Through 1850.