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Birth Records and the Information Within
Birth records are modern vital records and did not come into
existence, particularly in the United States, until the late 1800s to early
1900s. As time progressed, the details included in birth records also increased.
Birth records contain detailed information concerning a person’s birth and his
or her family.
Depending
on the location, birth records differ in terms of their availability,
information, and type of record. Generally though, birth records often contain
information like name, birth date, birth place, sex, race, legitimacy,
residence, and parental details.
The
attending physician or midwife provides all the pertinent information in birth
records regarding the child’s birth. This basic information is filed immediately
after the birth and is therefore considered primary information.
However,
details in birth records, particularly about the child’s parents and siblings,
are often provided years after the actual birth and, as such, cannot always be
considered reliable data, if you’re planning to use them for your genealogical
research study. They may, however, serve as a secondary source and can lead to
other primary sources of information.
Older birth
records tend to contain less information than newer ones. Birth records are
normally protected by privacy laws, especially if the person concerned is still
living; and it might be easier if you try to obtain birth records from the
county or town level, rather than the state level.
Digging Up Birth Records
There are several
legitimately valid reasons for obtaining a copy of birth records, like
genealogical researches or cases of lost birth certificates. Some decide to
check birth records to contact someone’s parents and relatives or to conduct a
background search. Unless you have a good reason, though, the chances of getting
hold of birth records can be quite elusive.
If the sole purpose of
digging up those birth records is merely to confirm the birth of a person and
you don’t require an actual copy of the records, writing to the appropriate
agency to conduct a search may suffice.
In case you are after
the actual birth records, on the other hand, a county courthouse locator is one
of your best bets. If the time restriction for a person’s birth record is up, or
if you are related to the person you’re after, or if it’s your personal birth
records you’re looking for, you can order birth records from a county courthouse
locator.
Birth records are often
arranged in chronological order. Some towns or counties have open libraries
where you can freely search their archives for your genealogy quests. It might
help to run a search for unusual names in the family, as there are cases when
enumerators could not spell the names they heard.
CDC’s
National Center for Health Statistics can also provide you with
information concerning the agencies you can write to when you need to locate
birth records. You can also get in touch with them
online.
The internet is a
helpful avenue for finding birth records. Several websites offer free database
searches for birth records like
anybirthday.com and
birthdatabase.com. These sites contain millions of birthdays in their
database and give you a good chance of hitting the birth records you’re after.
Check out
RecordsSiteReviews’
Birth Records section to learn
more about the kinds of information you find on birth records and how you can
use them.
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