Vital Records - A Brief Overview

[Jack Blair]

Birth, Death and Marriage Records
The foundation of genealogy or family history research is birth, death
and marriage records. It is these vital records of life's significant
events that we turn to when we begin to seek out the knowledge of our
ancestry. These public records and others such as the Social Security
Death Index (SSDI), offer access to genealogical information that may
not be available from any other source.
The Social Security Death Records constitute a data base of around
65/70 million names, most of which belong to the period from 1962 to
1988. This library of archived data is being constantly added to.
Using these family search tools you should be able to:


Distinguish between people with the same name
Identify your ancestors
Establish birth, death and marriage data, such as dates and places
Learn the occupation and place of residence of ancestors
Prove/disprove the validity of other records
Find subtle clues to assist your research If family history
(genealogical research) is something that you are just becoming
interested in, then the best place to start is with yourself. Write
your own name on a piece of paper with your birth date and place, and
now add what you know about your parents and grandparents, and so on,
until you have exhausted your immediate knowledge.

Next, if your parents are alive and you can meet with them face to
face, take a piece of paper with you and have them exhaust their
knowledge of names, dates and places. Repeat this with all living
relatives. Write to those you cannot visit.

Search Millions of Public Records: http://groups.google.com/group/pubrecs/