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There are lots of different kinds of public records available for searching. Governments and churches keep records of specific life events often. Examples are:
Vital Records- Often contain the dates and places of births, marriages, and deaths.
Census Records-These are a rich source of information about individuals and families! They often list names, ages, relationships, birthplaces, and occupation. Thousands of census records have been films and are available online.
Immigration Records-These were created when an individual or family arrived in a new country and are helpful in finding names and birthplaces of family members, and dates of arrival.
Newspapers-May contain articles about your ancestors and often include obituaries announcing the deaths of local citizens, and usually contain valuable details like birthplace, birth date, family members, religion, and burial.
Church Records-Churches often keep records of births, marriages, and deaths.
Cemetary Records-Tombstone and sexton records give birth and death dates, age at death, name of spouse, names of children, and maiden names. They may also have symbols or insignia suggesting military service, and social, fraternal, or religious affiliations.
Steps for Gathering Information from Public Records
1. Pray for Guidance
2. Choose an Ancestor. You will be most effective if you focus on a single ancestor or family. You may also want to identify the specific event- like birth, death, or marriage- about which you want to seek information.
3. Use the Record Selection Table (available in Appendix C of Membership Guide)
4. Find the Record. Visit or contact the place the record is kept, useful records could be stored in family history centers, libraries, archives, churches, courthouses, and on internet sites.
Remember to keep notes on what you find!
There is a research log in the back of the membership guide and sources like RootsMagic also have forms to record what you find. It's important to detail how you came across the information to help in future endeavors.
The Websites List on the right side of the page is jam packed with resources for gathering records!
The Family History Department of the LDS Church provides genealogical resources containing information on approximately 1 BILLION deceased persons!!
At familysearch.org, familysearch.com, and new.familysearch.org are just 3 of the best sites available.
FamilySearch.org has lots of databases available under "Search":
1. Ancestral File
2. Census Records
3. International Genealogical Index
4. Pedigree Resource File
5. U.S. Social Security Death Index
6. Vital Records Index
7. Search Family History Web Sites
At the top of the "Search" page there are also topi links to click for additional resources.
FamilySearch.org also has a research help program called Research Guidance, it's a step by step guide to doing research based on a specific research goal (i.e., locality and time period). It has information about history, particular sources, and links to sites and the Family History Library Catalog.
The Family History Library Catalog is very helpful if you know where a family member lived at time of event (birth, marriage, death).
FamilySearchBeta lets you find all these databases
-Forums -FHLC -ResearchWiki -FamilySearchIndexing -RecordSearch (which has lots of indexed information, and provides lots of ways to search, by location or occupation, etc)
FamilySearchWiki is a database of pages compiled by experience researchers to help research in particular subject/area.
Census Record Searches:
Immigration Searches:
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:
Databases containing histories, biographies, indexes, transcriptions, or digitized original records:
ancestry.com (which is free at the local library!)
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