How far back do birth certificates go?

Question

and marriage and death?? say my ancestor is born 1756, will there be a birth? if not how do people trace back to 1700?

Answer 1

In England & Wales cirtifecates of Birth, Death and Marriage start July 1 1837 Scotland starts a little later.

Answer 2

In the US, it varies state to state, even county to county in many cases.

Example, in my home state of Virginia, the official year that the state began to require these records are 1853.  They have birht and death records from 1853-1896 and then June 1912 to present.  I am not sure why there is a gap in time.  In researching my ancestors from North Carolina, births and deaths have been registered in North Carolina state government offices only since 1913. Prior to 1913, the state of North Carolina did not use birth records or certificates of any kind.

You will have to research for each state or locality.  There isn't anything real uniform that applies to every state on when they started keeping records.

Answer 3

About 14000AD, for rich people( the Royalty and Gentry, then they became standard for people in the 1800's even then, poor people couldn't do it. even in the 1900's people still weren't registered. in the slums of bristol liverpool london manchester birmingham and Dublin as well as other big cities. As above the normal registration of birth were in church parish regisers when people were christened, but this is usually in the more rural areas.

Answer 4

Yours goes back to when you were born.

Answer 5

the day your born?

j/k   town records (church es) normally kept records of births and deaths before hospitals started keeping track.  If you can find the towns where your ancestors lived, you can get a close estimate of birthdays, but unless you were educated, there was not much chance of someone in your family having the money or literacy to document births or deaths

Answer 6

You can find some births/christenings & marraiges going back as far as 1553 on some IGI sites (International Genealogical Indexes)

There are lots of free search sites if you look under Genealogy

Answer 7

It all depends on when local records were started and even if they are still in existence.You start in the city,town ,shire country or known locality,and work from there.You can apply to the national office for births ,deaths and marriages.

Answer 8

To add to what Tebs said, Register entries do vary. Very old records do not show father's name for either of the happy couple, and some don't even show the name of the bride. It's "John Smith got married", or "John Smith married his wife", could be "John Smith married Mary", and even later ones show "of full age" or "under age". For old Baptisms, sometimes it is only the father's name shown, poor mother doesn't get a look in.

Your best bet is to follow up in Church Baptism Registers, and hope Vicar at time good on recording. A few Church Register transcripts are now available on-line.

Answer 9

In England and Wales the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1837.

Prior to that date it is necessary to search parish registers of baptims, marriages and deaths. Sometimes the birth date is also recorded with the baptism, otherwise it will be just the baptismal date, which is normally a few days after the birth, but can sometimes be weeks , months or even years later. The marriage register will give the same information as the present certificates do. Burial registers will give the date of burial and sometimes the date of death. The earliest of these registers were begun in 1538 and continue until today.

A useful, though not complete, starting point for periods earlier than about the mid 1800s is the IGI - International Genealogical Index - a finding aid which can be searched on line at http://familysearch.org  or at any LDS Family History Centre. If you use the IGI you must always, as with any secondary source, check your findings against the original, also usually available on fiche or film at the FHCs.

Answer 10

Here in the UK civil registration became mandatory on July 1st 1837. Parish records began in 1538.

Hope this helps.

Answer 11

Bubbles, this is an All English speaking board and people on it are from the U.S.,U.K., Canada, Australia and NewZealand.  So knowing your location is important.

I will answer as if you are in the U.S.   Each state has its own laws about who, when and where a person can obtain vital records on another.  Many states did not start recording vital information until the first part of the 20th century.  Even once they did, a lot of people that were born at home or died at home did not get recorded.  

Depending on the faith, church records can be helpful.  I answered your other question regarding parish records first.  

Catholics, Orthodox, Episcopal, Lutheran will have very detailed records.  Some faiths will not have much of any record except for membership.  

Another source are court records, such as wills, deeds, etc.