What are Vital Records
In my last blog post we covered how you should begin with gathering information about your family’s genealogy by first starting with yourself. If you haven’t already read my previous post and are confused on where to begin on your genealogical journey, please take a moment to go read over it. In this post I would like to more clearly touch upon what sources are, as well as explain what sources are considered “vital records” amongst genealogists.
When searching for sources that may contain family information you may find that the majority of the time this information can be recovered by looking into some form of records. The records you may find may be obscure or informal, but still contain valuable information. Remember to validate the claims of one source with a variety of sources. Sound genealogical research relies on this key rule. Sources that you will find might include old letters, word of mouth (written or verbally relayed) via family member, newspaper articles, and of course “vital records.” Today we won’t be touching upon sources like old letters, however we will be touching upon “vital records.”
Unlike other sources “vital records” are not made up of one source material. For example: under the old letters category you may expect to find sources such as love letters, family correspondence, the discovery that an ancestor had a pen pal, etc. “Vital records,” are not so straight forward, this category of sources is made up of three types of records: birth, marriage, and death. As they deal with important life events in ancestor/family member lives, they are considered “vital.” Think of these records as a way to help to build the timeline of a particular individual on your family tree.
You may have no trouble at all locating some of these “vital records,” but if you do find that you are venturing outside of the United States to locate say a birth record for an ancestor, you may also want to be aware that “vital records” might also be referred to as civil registration in other countries. If you are searching within the U.S. for “vital records” they were reported at a city or county level, but more recently are now being reported at a state level. Keep in mind what era the individual is/was living in to determine where you should be searching. A helpful tip is to not widen your search too much. “Vital records” are not kept on a national level. In the U.S. it is the responsibility of the state to keep track of individuals’ records. Another important tip to keep in mind as you search for “vital records” is to check in at genealogy and historical societies in the area your relation lives/lived. Recently many of the genealogy and historical societies have been collecting “vital records.”
I hope that you have found this blog helpful and understand a little more about what sources mean in the field of genealogy, and “vital records. If you would like a more explanation about “vital records” and what other sources, you can expect to find in your genealogical journey including where to find them and how to use them please check out my webinars located also on this website. My webinars can be found via the drop-down menu on the furthest most right-hand corner of the website.
