Is there anywhere on here that you can view public records free?

Question

when i go to the sites that say it is free to view public records, it always asks for a credit card number. The link will say its free but its not. Is there any where on here that it is actually free to search AND view public records....death, birth, marriage.......any help will be appreciated... thanks

Answer 1

I don't know about absolutely free, but a personal visit to  the Church of Latter Day Saints are very helpful ( look up in the Phone Book ) or go online. A good site is "Find my Past" with a lot of help and some searches costing only pence.

Rootsweb people are extremely kind and helful. Usually experienced volunteers. Try typing in Rootsweb followed by the county you are interested in and follow the links They will go the extra mile for you  Ask for help at your local library..

Answer 2

The LDS church does NOT maintain records of living persons.. they have a huge collection of historical records. There are also many different definitions of what a public record might be (marriage? credit? death?). ALL of these things will be independent and located in different places, with different rules of accessibility.

If you are wanting to research your ancestry.. the best thing to learn is how to be explicit in terms of what it is that you want. A death record for a person who died in 1988 in Michigan can be completely different from a marriage record from the 1870s in Alabama.

A general rule is that records relating to living persons are going to normally have restrictions. You may find marriage records (current) at the courthouse locally.. a birth record for a baby in the last century (broadly speaking) will only be accessible to the parents or person concerned. The law will be different for various states.. different counties will have varying records posted (free) on a www.usgenweb.com site.

Almost everything you do in genealogy will involve looking at the INDIVIDUAL person, defining the locality and time frame, then going for the SPECIFIC piece of information that you want.