Birth records document a child’s birth and the names of his or her parents. Birth records are used in genealogy to verify birth date and place, and parents’ names which help to connect one generation to the next. The recording of births varies from country to country and location to location. A country may have adopted civil registration, but it may not have consistently documented births for years or decades. Prior to the adoption of government birth records, birth record alternatives include religious records such as baptism or christening.
Birth records such as birth certificates can be found in record sets referred to as civil registration or vital records depending on the country.
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Birth records online
Genealogy websites like MyHeritage may include various iterations of birth records. These can include:
- Indexes
- Transcriptions
- Registrations
- Birth Certificates
- Delayed Birth Certificates
Indexes and transcriptions can be helpful in finding information, but the researchers need to keep in mind that they are only finding aids and do not substitute for using an original record. Original records should always be sought after. Indexes and transcriptions only provide some information but not all of the information found on an original record. Indexes and transcriptions can contain errors.
Problems acquiring birth certificates
Records available online differ due to privacy laws and government restrictions. In some cases, you will need to contact a government office to obtain records. These records will require payment of a fee. In some localities, privacy concerns and laws restrict what records will be released and to whom. Birth records may be restricted only to those people named on the record or a legal representative. In addition, they may be unavailable for a set length of time, such as 75 years, due to privacy. Consult the website of the government office in charge of vital record registration to ascertain the availability of birth records.
Not all birth records are online due to several issues, including privacy restrictions. Those that are not online will have to be acquired by the county, state, or locality where they were recorded. There can be issues when trying to access more recent birth records, including:
- Restrictions on who may order the birth record
- Cost
- Where they are stored and the time needed to access
- Redacted or altered information in the case of adoption
- Redacted information due to privacy laws
- Missing records
Even if a locality started vital records registration by a certain date, it can be years or even decades before 100% compliance (or near 100% compliance) is reached. This means that it is possible a birth was not recorded even for someone who was born after records were kept.
20th-Century birth certificates in the United States
In the United States, births were not recorded by all states until the early 20th century. There is no national birth registration. Massachusetts started recording births on a town level in the 1620s but didn’t start on the state level until 1841. Western states like California didn’t start vital record registration until 1905. It’s possible to find earlier birth records depending on what the town, city, or county was recording. However, even when a state started vital record registration, there wasn’t 100% compliance which means that not all births were recorded until decades later. In some states, there wouldn’t be near 100% compliance until the 1940s or after.
With the passage of the Social Security Act in the 1930s, and later the need to prove citizenship for World War II work, some citizens had to acquire a delayed birth certificate because of the lack of birth registration in some states. These birth certificates include oaths, statements, and record proof (family bible or the US Census, or example) for the person’s birth. Once this was completed, the person was issued a birth certificate. These birth certificates are sometimes labeled “Delayed Birth Certificate.”
Birth record alternatives
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In the absence of birth records, what other records might be substituted? The best birth record alternatives are those that were created at or near the time of the event. This may include church records such as christening or baptism records.
Other birth record alternatives might be records that list a birth date or an age. Because these records weren’t meant to capture birth information, they may not be accurate. Examples include military records, census records, school records, and death records.
Prior to civil registrations, families may have noted vital records events in their family bible. These records need to be carefully analyzed, but in some cases, they may be the only record documenting the birth.
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See also
Explore more about birth records
- Birth records collection at MyHeritage
- Birth, Marriage & Death records at MyHeritage
- Vital Records: How to Find Birth, Marriage & Death Records on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Born to be Filed: Delayed Birth Records in the U.S. at Legacy Family Tree Webinars