Vital records are referred to as primary and secondary sources; records of life’s events such as births, marriages and deaths. Most vital records are available though a governmental agency or depository. Those from a church or synagogue might be held by each individual church or temple or at their central headquarters. Funeral home records reside with those individual businesses as does the records at cemeteries. Newspapers can be preserved at the individual newspaper’s office, but also in the region’s public libraries, usually saved on microfilm.

Make sure to use a variety of vital records to verify an ancestor’s date of birth. A birth registration certificate issued by the U. K. General Register Office, a government agency, would be your first primary source. This was generally completed at the Register Office within a month of a baby’s birth by the mother. It would have the date and place of birth, the child’s full name, the parent’s full name, including the mother’s maiden name. The occupation of the father and the family residence address would also be on the document.

Next any newspaper notice of the birth is a good source along with a hospital record of the birth. If a baby was baptized the church parish records include the actual birth date and the baptismal date. Use secondary sources; such as military records, marriage license or a death certificate to confirm the exact birth date.

Organization

From the beginning as you collect the vital records you must have a system of organization. A notebook, with vinyl sheets to store the documents, is great. A filing cabinet, with labeled folders to store the records, is helpful. Using a computer to make a digital record of your collection of records along with scanned copies of the documents allows you know what you have and what you may still need.

Always first check for copies of birth, marriage and death records that your parents or grandparents might have already, possibility tucked away in the attic. Next ask other relatives for copies of their own birth and marriage records.