Finding Family - Birth and Death Certificates

Birth certificates are a good way to find out everything that you need to know about a person and their history. You can find out what hospital they were born in, the name of the mother and father. In most cases, especially when you are digging into the past, you can find out the name of the parents. Most birth certificates of the past give the name of the father as well as the mother. It was considered a shame, at one time, to have no father on the birth certificate as a child was labeled “illegitimate.” As this was the case, most mothers did their best to get the name of the father printed on the birth certificate.

While the death certificate provides an abundance of information, it is a step towards getting to the birth certificate. By learning in which county the person was born, you can then find out who their parents were. Many of them give the age of the parents. You can use this information to find out the death certificates of the parents that are listed on the birth certificate and glean more information as you continue your journey in finding out your family history.

I was not able to discover much about by grandfather by obtaining his death certificate. I knew when he was born, when he died, where he was born and the county in which he was born. This was enough of a lead, however, to discover more about him.

If you are on a website such as Ancestry.Com, you can put this information into the website. This will enable others in your family, who are also looking up family history, to get this information. It can also help you discover them and what they know about the history. A great deal of information is shared in this manner. One of the reasons for using an online site is not so much obtaining records, but connecting with other relatives, such as cousins, who are seeking the same thing as you. They may have more information than you have and will be able to share it with you. If you are using a site that allows you to put this information into the family tree, you should do so. You never know where the leads are going to come from.

Discovering your family history is like detective work. You work your way back through the beginning and get different clues.

In addition to the death certificate, you can also look up the marriage certificate, although this will usually just tell you the county where the marriage was recorded and the names of the individuals. It is another piece of information that you can use to help you on your quest to find your missing relatives.

In my case, my next step was the birth certificate of my grandfather.