One thing you learn when you start researching your family tree is that birth certificates are a fairly recent phenomenon. Most states in the U.S. didn’t require them until the early 20th century. (And most states took a few more years to become compliant to new laws.) But don’t worry if you ancestor arrived before the state vital records office was in operation. Here are some favorite backdoors to birth details used by the family history experts at Ancestry.
Birth name of child
- Where to look: Census records created closest to the time of the child’s birth.
- Also check: Family Bibles, early photos of the child, wills and legal documents created later in life.
- Note: It wasn’t uncommon for people to adopt different names over a lifetime. Note that first names and last names may have once been spelled differently. Use wildcards to replace tricky letters letters in online searches to help catch variations.
Parents’ names
- Where to look: Census records created closest to the time of the child’s birth.
- Also check: Family Bibles and family stories, draft registration cards, obituaries and death certificates; look for a mother’s maiden name in a marriage index or sometimes as the middle name of a child.
- Note: Review census records carefully; you may discover in-laws living nearby or even with the family, which could provide you with a mother’s maiden name. Search for birth records using the names of the parents but not the child’s name — you could land birth records for siblings that way, too.
A Certification of Report of Birth of a United States Citizen, Source: Wikimedia Commons
Place of birth
- Where to look: Census records, draft cards, immigration records, death certificates, obituaries
- Also check: Birthplaces of siblings, which could be the same birthplace of children missing from the census; marriage location for parents if researching the oldest child.
- Note: Census birthplace for the same person may not always be accurate; compare any discrepancies against birthplaces reported in other records. Plot the birthplace details on a timeline to see if it’s possible for a family to have been in a specific place at a specific time.
Lived in
- Where to look: Census records, city directories, yearbooks
- Also check: Records of other family members, including siblings
- Note: People might have been more mobile than you realize, so use an open mind when it comes to location. It may be more effective to conduct multiple searches when you don’t know exactly which state the child was born in.
Know what’s available
- Where to look: Ancestry Wiki, Search page map
- Note: Though States weren’t required to record births until early in the 20th century, plenty of them — as well as counties and other municipalities and organizations — did long before then. You can find out who started retaining what records on the Ancestry Wiki; just search for the states you’re interested to learn more. You can also see what birth records are available at Ancestry for a specific state by clicking on the state from the map at the bottom of the Search page and reviewing the information listed under Birth, Marriage and Death.