Birth Certificates

In 1908, births were required to be reported by the County to the State. However, it was not until 1927 that state-wide registration was considered successfull at the State level.

• For birth certificates prior to 1908, write to the County Clerk.
  
• For birth certificates after 1908, write to Dept of Health - Vital Records.
  

Marriage Certificates

Marriage Certificates are usually available from the date the County was organized. State registration began in 1936.

There are two types of marriage records: applications for marriage licenses and returned marriage licenses. Be aware a small minority of people who apply for marriage licenses do not actually get married, so you should always look for the returned license.

Early marriage records usually contained the name of the two individuals involved and a witness. Often, if one of the individuals was under-age, a note may be attached providing permission for the individual to marry. However, the format and information provided on the licenses does depend on the date.

• For marriage certificates prior to 1936, write to the County Clerk.
  
• For marriage certificates after 1936, write to Dept of Health - Vital Records.
  

Bible Records

Bible records are considered a valuable, credible genealogical resource. There are two reasons for this. First, the records are usually recorded at the time of the event. That means that the accuracy of the recording, whether it is a date or name or a place, is not faded by memory. Second, the person doing the recording is usually someone to whom the event is important and therefore is more apt to be accurate, as in the case of a mother recording the birth or death of her child.

The information kept in bible records varies according to the custom of the family keeping them, but often includes birth, death, and marriage dates.

Death Certificates

In 1905, deaths were required to be reported by the County to the State. However, it was not until 1920 that state-wide registration was considered successfull at the State level.

• For death certificates prior to 1908, write to the County Clerk.
  
• For death certificates after 1908, write to Dept of Health - Vital Records.
  

  Include the following information:

  Name at Death
  Date of Death
  City and Countyof Death
  

Modern death certificates contain:

• Name and last residence of the deceased.
• Date, place, and cause of death.
• Marital status and spouse's name.
• Parents names, including mother's maiden name (But not always)
• Burial place and funeral director.
• Informant - the person, most often a spouse or family member, who provided the personal information.

Be aware that the much of the information on a death certificate is given by a third party, usually the spouse or a child who may not know it accurately to begin with. And the information is reported long after the event, as with the birth date.

Grave Headstones

If you know the location where your ancestor died, try to locate the cemetery where they were buried. Once located, there are several ways to get the date of death.

• If possible, visit the cemetery or locate an individual than can do so for you. Going there in person will not only provide us access to the information for that individual but will also provide you information on others than may be buried in the surrounding plots.
• If the cemetery is still maintained, you may be able to locate the records of the cemetery or funeral home.
• Libraries and

  Wills and Intestate Records - Probate

  Obviously, wills and the many records generated during disposition of an estate, often point to a date of death. But you will also find key information within wills such as family relationsips, birth order, which children are minors at the time, and the married names of daughters.

  Probate records are available from the Clerk of Court.

  When a person dies leaving an estate, the county government is reponsible for seeing that it is distributed according to law. How that is done depends on whether or not the deceased left a will. If the deceased leaves a will, it will be recorded and filed with the local court This process is called probate. The executor named in the will is charged with carrying out the distribution of the estate under the supervision of the court.

  If, on the other hand, the deceased dies without leaving a will, then he or she has died intestate, and the government must appoint an administrator to distribute the estate according the law. In either case, several types of records are generated through the court and may be of interest to the genealogist.

  Obituaries

  Obituaries are good places to find vital statistic information and to uncover family relationships. Modern day obituaries are usually submitted to local newspapers, or newspapers covering the general area where a person spent a significant part of their life, by the funeral director handling the funeral and burial. The information is collected by them from the family member arranging the funeral.

  Of course, the key information in an obituary are the name of the deceased, their death date and place, often their spouse's name, frequently their birth date and place, and commonly their place of burial.

  A second bit of key data obtained from obituaries is the place of residence of surviving family members, and, in the case of women, their married names. Third, you can find the name of the cemetery a person is buried in from his or her obituary. This can often lead to the discovery of unkown family members who were buried in the same lot.

  Because much of the information in obituaries is reported second-hand, you should always try corraborate it with other sources.

  Social Security Death Indexes

  The Social Security death index can be used to determine a month/year of death and a probable location. They are usually available at the LDS Family History Centers and they are also available for searching on-line at www.infobases.com.

  These indexes contain the following:

  • The name of the person as it appears in the Social Security records. This is the name they gave when applying for their social security card and often corresponds to the name as it appeared on their birth certificate which was frequently used in obtaining a card. Note that most women have the name on their Social Security records changed when they marry.
  • The individual's Social Security number.
  • The date of birth as it appeared on the documents used when registering for Social Security.
  • City, county, and state (there can be several entries) to which Social Security benefits were mailed. This location frequently corresponds to the last residence. However, in many cases it corresponds to the address of the relative to which a final death benefit was mailed.
  • The date of death. This is most often the date as appeared on the death certificate of the person in question.

  Mortuary Records

  Funeral home and mortuary records often contain at least the date of burial, but often the date of death, age at death, and family relationships. These records are kept at the funeral home, and frequently pass to the descendants when a funeral home ceases business. If the business is sold to another owner, the records are frequently passed on to the new owners.