Family History

Ways to find a birth date or age or birth place:

  1. Application for employment ______
  2. Application for Social Security (SS-5) ______
  3. Apprenticeship records ______
  4. Baby dedication record ______
  5. Bankruptcy records ______
  6. Baptismal records ______
  7. Biography/Autobiography ______
  8. Birth Announcement [card or letter] ______
  9. Birth Announcement [newspaper] ______
  10. Birth Certificate ______
  11. Burial permit (esp. at National Cemeteries) ______
  12. Business license application ______
  13. Christening record ______
  14. Church membership record ______
  15. Church confirmation record ______
  16. Church burial record ______
  17. Cremation record ______
  18. Correspondence ______
  19. Cemetery Sexton’s record ______
  20. Census schedule ______
  21. Census index ______
  22. Census Soundex ______
  23. Census Mortality Schedule (1850—1880) ______
  24. Company employment record ______
  25. Compiled Genealogies ______
  26. City Census ______
  27. City Directory ______
  28. Death Certificate ______
  29. Diaries ______
  30. Divorce records ______
  31. Doctor’s birth record ______
  32. Doctor’s patient record ______
  33. Draft registration record [WWI, WWII, Viet Nam] ______
  34. Driver’s license ______
  35. Driving history record ______
  36. Deed record ______
  37. Dower interest ______
  38. Ellis Island manifests (see stevenpmorse.com) ______
  39. Estate settlement record ______
  40. Family Bible ______
  41. Family Needlepoint ______
  42. Family paper ______
  43. Family Reunion notice ______
  44. Funeral home record ______
  45. Fraternal/club record ______
  46. Google searches ______
  47. Historical societies ______
  48. Histories of towns, cities, villages ______
  49. History book ______
  50. Hospital patient record ______
  51. Homestead record (Land Entry Files @ National Archives) ______
  52. Immigration records (Declaration of Intent, Ship Manifests, etc. after 1907) ____
  53. Indian Nation Census ______
  54. Indian Nation Slave Records ______
  55. Insurance Company record ______
  56. Insurance ID Card ______
  57. Internet sites,i.e., Ancestry.com, rootsweb, genweb, ______
  58. Land purchase records ______
  59. Land taxation records (maybe not names, but relationships) ______
  60. Lineage Society Application ______
  61. Mortgage record ______
  62. Marriage record ______
  63. Marriage application or license (Marriage Banns?) ______
  64. Military personnel record ______
  65. Military medical record ______
  66. Military burial record ______
  67. Museums ______
  68. Newspaper article ______
  69. Newspaper gossip column ______
  70. Newspaper (required) notices ______
  71. Naturalization record [best records 1905 to present] ______
  72. Neighbors on census listings ______
  73. 1940 “Old man census ______
  74. Nursing Home records ______
  75. Obituary (newspapers or periodicals) ______
  76. One name studies ______
  77. Orphanage records ______
  78. Passenger manifests ______
  79. Personnel records from the service; Army, Air Force, Navy, etc. ______
  80. Pictures (backs of them) ______
  81. Plat maps ______
  82. Printed pedigrees ______
  83. Prison records ______
  84. Probate record ______
  85. Professional license application ______
  86. Passport ______
  87. Pension record ______
  88. PERSI ______
  89. Petition for land grant ______
  90. Query in Genealogical periodical/online ______
  91. Railroad records ______
  92. Resume ______
  93. School attendance record ______
  94. School annual ______
  95. School credentials (honors, award, degrees, etc) ______

94. Sexton records at a cemetery ______

  1. Share Cropper Agreements ______
  2. Ship passenger lists ______
  3. Social Security Master Death Index (from about 1962 to present) ______
  4. Social Security Work History Record ______

100.Stone mason inscription record______

101..Tax Rolls ______

102.Tombstone inscription ______

103.Title insurance record ______

104.Union card ______

105.Union dues record ______

106.Vital Statistics Indexes ______

107.Voter registration ______

108. Witnesses on records ______

109.Who’s who ______

110.Wills ______

Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009 Judy Wiggins, RN, DC