USA Research Information

Provided by Donald Lee Purfeerst

The original thread of this topic inquired as to the source of birth
RECORDS in the USA. And I think Andrew Prescott may be a little overly
pessimistic as to the availability of same.

As one who has obtained or searched through literally hundreds of BMD
certificates from the four corners of the USA (in support of my 26,000
name web site) I can tell you they are on file at the county (court house)
level AND/or at the state level. And as one who has also looked through
those massive FRC indices and obtained dozens of UK certificates from the
FRC I can also tell you the USA certificates are vastly more informative. 

Our problem is we are a "young" country. 

Keep in mind that county/state vital record offices became a reality only
as the individual states were admitted to the Union and a law was passed
within that state requiring the establishment of Civil Registration. 
And then the law had to be honored/enforced. I live in Arizona; we didn't
join the Union until 1912; Hawaii in 1959. Pennsylvania, the second of the
original 13 Colonies, dates back to 1787 yet official BMD record keeping
did not begin until 1906. On the other hand Massachusetts's records go
 back 1841 and Wisconsin to 1852. So it is a state-by-state matter.
  
USA churches are not a viable source for vital records simply because
they did not RETAIN the (mass of) administrative records, even if they
generated them. Since the early days, our religious community has consisted
of an endless variety of Protestant religions, brought here by immigrants
from across the world. Those early faiths, if they survived, have since
undergone endless mergers. Early church records are to be found at the
central archive supporting that religious faith. Most religious
denominations have web sites. 

While USA census records are certainly one of the many record sources for
birth (AGE) information they will never come close to providing the wealth
of information contained on our birth certificates. But in reality I find
the death record to contain everything the birth record does...and more.
And records of doctor-reported deaths are more likely to be available than
midwife-reported births.

Yes, the USA Social Security Death Index is a good place to start but its
origin was not until 1935 when Social Security began. The index, however,
contains only approximately 80 percent of the deaths that occur. Not 
everyone has a SSN nor is it a requirement that a death be reported to the
SS Administration. But if you find a name there, by all means order a copy
of the original application. It is informative.

Chasing obituaries are my favorite pastime because they tend to report the
family structure. And help zero in on the death record and cemetery record.
They are also more prevalent here then in the UK. More and more newspapers
have their archives on-line or have willing archive attendants to look them
up for you. 

Also, as in the UK, our genealogical societies are constantly indexing local
BMD, cemetery and church records. Most never get to the LDS.

Please do not forget that the LDS has films for many of the early state BMD
records as well as early church records.
 
Here are some web sites to help with you USA research. Some I previously
provided (word-wrap may be eliminated by using number 10 font): 

World-wide newspapers on-line (for obits)... http://library.uncg.edu/news/

More newspapers on-line... http://www.newspapers.com/

Obituaries on-line... http://www.arrangeonline.com/default.asp

List of USA counties.. http://www.genealogy.org/~st-clair/counties/welcome.html#countyix

Cemeteries on-line... http://www.interment.net/   
  
Find a cemetery... http://www.daddezio.com/cemetery/

Find an obit, cemetery or funeral home... http://www.funeralnet.com/

Find a genealogical society... http://www.familyhistory.com/societyhall/main.asp
   
Find a genealogical book... http://www.onelibrary.com/

Vital record offices... http://www.lineages.com/usa/VitalRecordsOffices.asp?StateCode=

More vital record offices... http://vitalrec.com/

All county offices... http://www.naco.org/counties/counties/index.cfm

All state information... http://www.stateofnewyork.com/index.html

Social Security death index... http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

Much of the above, state-by-state... http://www.genealogytoday.com/genealogy/states/?

US military war dead... http://www.abmc.gov/abmc4.htm

All church archives... http://www.swinehartgeo.com/churchdata/search.html

United Church of Canada archives... http://vicu.utoronto.ca/archives/genealogy.html

Lutheran Missouri Synod archives... http://chi.lcms.org/

Episcopal Church archives... http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ 

Evangelical Church archives...  http://www.elca.org/os/archives/intro.html

Methodist Church archives... http://www.gcah.org/

I hope that helps a few.

Regards 

DONALD LEE PURFEERST
donald@purfeerst.com
Arizona USA
See our world family genealogy at www.purfeerst.com
With an 26,000 name index dating to year 1000
Registered, Guild of One-Name Studies www.one-name.org
Researching German paternal ancestor PURFURST and UK maternal ancestor
BOSTOCK

Donald's reply when I asked for permission to post this.

Hello Steven:
 
I would be pleased if you used the information I provided.
 
If there any other specific USA research areas of interest that someone
has a question on please let me know and I will be happy to see if I can
come up with a web site that may help.