When researching your family tree, how do you get birth records on line?

Answer 1

It depends...

Birth records are protected by privacy laws in most countries. In the US they're private for 72 years from the person's date of birth. In Great Britain they're protected for 100 years, as I believe they are in Canada, too. Other countries are similar. If the records you want are more recent than that, only the parent or the person him/herself can get copies of them unless you have a copy of a death certificate and can prove you are a legitimate heir of the person.

If the records you want are in the US and older than 72 years, it's hit and miss whether you can find them online. Only the county clerks have possession of the records and they make significant money selling copies of the records. Putting the records onlline for free would cut out that profit. They strongly resist doing it. And there are states where it's not permitted to post birth certificate information. Where the information is published, the best place to find it is the USGenWeb site for that county. http://www.usgenweb.org

You'll also find that there are several wonderful volunteers at the various GenWeb sites who are more than happy to go pull birth certificate information for you (they can't photocopy for you, but can write it down). Or if you pay for a genealogy copy of the birth certificate that you want, they can get it and send it to you.

Also, most states in the US didn't keep birth certificates at all before 1870 and didn't require them until 1925-1930. There was a registration fee attached to birth certificates and many families couldn't afford to pay it. So births weren't registered.

In other countries, births weren't recorded until civil registers were kept. Spain, Italy, the US and others didn't start keeping these until the 1870s. The Netherlands, parts of Germany, Switzerland and others started keeping them a little earlier, but not much.

If the records you want are in the Netherlands, they are online (except for Amsterdam where they're not online at all) at http://www.genlias.nl

If the records you want are from Quebec, they're only consistently recorded by the Catholic Church and have only been archived up to 1799. They're in the PRDH database at the Universite de Montreal website.

BMD records in Great Britain are available at a few sites from 1837 on (that being the year that England and Wales started keeping civil registers). Here are a couple of decent sites: http://www.uk-bmd.org.uk/BMD-part1.html
http://www.bmdindex.co.uk/info.htm


Hope this helps a little...

Answer 2

Hey Kayaress,

You will get dates and locations at LDS Family search, but those are not birth records. You can get birth records by using a GENFORUM and finding a distant cousin that is researching the same surname. You can get Free BMD information, and usually if you want the certificate - you have to pay extra, example Scotlands People web site has lots of Old Parish Records - the dates can be counted on, but they will not GIVE you a copy for free. Here are some of the sites discussed, plus some related sites.

Vital Records are required for rigorous Genealogy -Proof beyond doubt. You can be a hobby genealogist and choose to believe certain information that comes to you from trusted sources. Obituaries are one example. If for example you choose to join the Mayflower society and prove your relation, you will need at least 2 sources for each connection.

My point is that you may not need the Birth Records, just the information if you can trust it.

Answer 3

Get a No Cost Background Check Scan at https://bitly.im/aNGLT

Its a sensible way to start. The site allows you to do a no cost scan simply to find out if any sort of data is in existence. A smaller analysis is done without cost. To get a detailed report its a modest payment.

You may not realize how many good reasons there are to try and find out more about the people around you. After all, whether you're talking about new friends, employees, doctors, caretakers for elderly family members, or even significant others, you, as a citizen, have a right to know whether the people you surround yourself with are who they say they are. This goes double in any situation that involves your children, which not only includes teachers and babysitters, but also scout masters, little league coaches and others. Bottom line, if you want to find out more about someone, you should perform a background check.

Answer 4

If your getting birth records online, be prepared to pay a fee. I found that the most efficient information for myself, came from vivisting one of the LDS geneaology centers, where they keep tons of public records. Good luck.

Answer 5

The mormon have all the records for the people born in the us because they baptized the dead. You can research the info pretty easily.