Accessing Birth and Death Certificates on Ancestry (American, find, search)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am having such difficulty understanding how people do this.
We had a speaker at the last society meeting who explained ICD codes to us that are on actual death certificates. Later, I asked him how he got these death certificates on line and he said to go to Ancestry, click on the "green leaves" and they amazingly showed up. Well, not on my computer. He said he has 100 death certificates, accessed on Ancestry ?
Ancestry "expert" says you have to know which state has approved release of these documents. My big states are Vermont , Illinois and Indiana. Frustrated at my attempts to get documents either by writing to the counties, health depts, clerks, etc and wishing I could find these on line. Is the library Ancestry better than my own?
I'm mostly Pennsylvania and for that state, Ancestry has birth certificates from 1906-1911 and death certificates from 1906-1967 uploaded from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I think it's really just "hit and miss" depending on the state, you have to look at Ancestry's card catalog to see what they have for Vermont, Illinois and Indiana.
That speaker might have just lucked out and had ancestors that lived in states that scanned a ton of their birth and death certificates and had a deal with Ancestry. Did he mention which state(s) he found those 100 death certificates?
I am having such difficulty understanding how people do this.
We had a speaker at the last society meeting who explained ICD codes to us that are on actual death certificates. Later, I asked him how he got these death certificates on line and he said to go to Ancestry, click on the "green leaves" and they amazingly showed up. Well, not on my computer. He said he has 100 death certificates, accessed on Ancestry ?
He is talking about the records hints that come up on individuals in your tree, if you have a family tree at Ancestry.com. These can be very useful, but I would not rely on them alone, you should also use the search engine to find records.
Ancestry "expert" says you have to know which state has approved release of these documents. My big states are Vermont , Illinois and Indiana. Frustrated at my attempts to get documents either by writing to the counties, health depts, clerks, etc and wishing I could find these on line.
That's correct - not all states have made vital records available online (some are not even public record). And even among those states which have them available online, records don't always cover all time periods. Most states began making vital records mandatory around 1900, give or take. If you're looking for vital certificates from before the state began issuing them, they might not even exist. Some counties or big cities might have been recording vital records but it generally wasn't mandatory to report births and deaths so the record still may not exist, unless you can find a church record.
There are some hints that lead to another website that has death certificates. I have a great-grandfather that I need to track down and his is located there. All I need to do is follow the steps. It's not a free record, but they're easy to get if you follow the steps. I think the availability also depends on the county/state and if they make their records available.
Keep in mind that formal birth and death certificates were not maintained by many states before about 1900 +/-. Prior to that, it may require digging into county records, church records, etc.
FamilySearch also has a nice collection of historical record databases that can be filtered by type and location. If I cannot find what I need at Ancestry, FamilySearch is almost always my next search. https://www.familysearch.org/search/...on/list?page=1
Keep in mind that formal birth and death certificates were not maintained by many states before about 1900 +/-. Prior to that, it may require digging into county records, church records, etc.
FamilySearch also has a nice collection of historical record databases that can be filtered by type and location. If I cannot find what I need at Ancestry, FamilySearch is almost always my next search. https://www.familysearch.org/search/...on/list?page=1
I agree with the above and was going to suggest you try Family Search.
I'll note for Illinois in particular, they are very...I'll say stingy with online offerings. There are many indexes and transcriptions available but not actual certificates online. You have to pay for them. My husband is from Chicago and it is a PITA researching even his grandparents because you have to pay to look at the images and it can get pricey.
Indiana, I know they have marriage and death certificates on Family Search. Not sure of births because as noted above many states did not issue birth certificates until the 20th century. I know Ohio has some birth records prior to 1900 and being that I am African American, there are some unique collections related to the "free negro" population of Indiana in the 1850s that list birth information of free blacks in that state, but I'm not certain of birth records in Indiana prior to 1900. My great grandfather though was born in Indianapolis in 1910 and I did find a copy of his birth certificate on Ancestry.
I am having such difficulty understanding how people do this.
We had a speaker at the last society meeting who explained ICD codes to us that are on actual death certificates. Later, I asked him how he got these death certificates on line and he said to go to Ancestry, click on the "green leaves" and they amazingly showed up. Well, not on my computer. He said he has 100 death certificates, accessed on Ancestry ?
Ancestry "expert" says you have to know which state has approved release of these documents. My big states are Vermont , Illinois and Indiana. Frustrated at my attempts to get documents either by writing to the counties, health depts, clerks, etc and wishing I could find these on line. Is the library Ancestry better than my own?
If anyone can help me, I would appreciate it. TIA
I have lots of death certificates from ancestry. States from all over. Texas and Ohio for example
Just do a search on your ancestor and look up death records.
Clemencia: Have you ever gotten any from Vermont, Illinois or Indiana? I doubt it.
You must be looking for records from before the state began issuing certificates, because as Pawleys posted, Ancestry offers:
Vermont, Death Records, 1909-2008
Vermont, Birth Records, 1909-2008
Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011
Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940
Illinois is the only one from the states you need that appears to only have birth or death indices, and from only two counties.
We all struggle to find vital records from before states began issuing certificates, because coverage is spotty and where they are held varies and winds up being harder for companies to collect in bulk. That's just a part of genealogy.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
