United States Vital Records

United States vital records, as its name suggests, is connected with central life events occurring within the United States: birth, marriage, and death. These records are prime sources of genealogical information, but, unfortunately, official records (those maintained by county and state governments), are available only for relatively recent time periods.

There are numerous aids for locating vital records. Most towns and counties have indexes to birth, marriage and death records. Even if the indexes are not complete, they can facilitate research. Many genealogical societies and online websites have published birth, marriage and death records.

When researching records, always check for duplicate copies at the various government levels. Many counties kept records before the states did. After state registration began, counties and cities continued to maintain their own registers of vital events. If one set of records is lost or incomplete, make sure to check the other.

For more recent births and deaths, an invaluable resource is the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). The Death Master File (DMF) from the Social Security Administration (SSA) currently contains over 89 million records and is updated weekly. The file is created from internal SSA records of deceased persons possessing social security numbers and whose deaths were reported to the SSA. Often this was done in connection with filing for death benefits by a family member, an attorney, a mortuary, etc. Each update of the DMF includes corrections to old data as well as additional names. Many websites provide access to the data, most of them free access.

The following pages provide addresses and information concerning the purchase of vital records from the various state agencies, and links to the variety of data available online for searching.

United States Vital Records Information

• Alabama Vital Records
• Alaska Vital Records
• Arizona Vital Records
• Arkansas Vital Records
• California Vital Records
• Colorado Vital Records
• Connecticut Vital Records
• Delaware Vital Records
• Florida Vital Records
• Georgia Vital Records
• Hawaii Vital Records
• Idaho Vital Records
• Illinois Vital Records
• Indiana Vital Records
• Iowa Vital Records
• Kansas Vital Records
• Kentucky Vital Records
• Louisiana Vital Records
• Maine Vital Records
• Maryland Vital Records
• Massachusetts Vital Records
• Michigan Vital Records
• Minnesota Vital Records
• Mississippi Vital Records
• Missouri Vital Records
• Montana Vital Records
• Nebraska Vital Records
• Nevada Vital Records
• New Hampshire Vital Records
• New Jersey Vital Records
• New Mexico Vital Records
• New York Vital Records
• North Carolina Vital Records
• North Dakota Vital Records
• Ohio Vital Records
• Oklahoma Vital Records
• Oregon Vital Records
• Pennsylvania Vital Records
• Rhode Island Vital Records
• South Carolina Vital Records
• South Dakota Vital Records
• Tennessee Vital Records
• Texas Vital Records
• Utah Vital Records
• Vermont Vital Records
• Virginia Vital Records
• Washington Vital Records
• West Virginia Vital Records
• Wisconsin Vital Records
• Wyoming Vital Records