Free Vital Records from Individual States

Vital records are essentially legal government documents. Thus, if you need to obtain a vital record, you must request it officially using a government-approved form, and you must pay a fee. Take note that each of the state and government agencies has its own application procedure in place, as well as a schedule of fees for requesting official copies of vital records. There are, however, states that provide limited information online at no cost. It's for vital records classified as "public record".

It's rather easy to track down the right agency you need to contact if you know the right place to look. Go to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm to find at no cost the specific government agency for each vital record for each state in the country.

Vital Records Online

You may be trying to search for the vital records of someone and you don't know which county or state agency to obtain the records from. There are many online resources you can use to help narrow down your search. One such online resource is Archives.com. This site has more than one billion records, so when you do a search here, it'll be a pretty comprehensive search. You can also browse collections of vital records, as well as get in touch with people who are into family history and genealogy, and ask experts for advice.

There is a fee for using Archives.com but the site does offer a free 7-day trial to help you decide if you want to use the service for your genealogical searches and related searches. You can use those 7 days to search for your own vital records, as well as the records of your dead and living relatives. If you decide not to cancel your trial, your subscription to the site automatically starts when the trial week ends.

Free Online Record Search Tools

When you're hunting for your ancestors or even information on your living relatives, there are many free resources, as well as search engines, that you can use. For instance, there's AncestorHunt.com, a free search engine that can help you locate records. You specify surnames or state and it will give you further genealogy help. Your search may turn up digital copies of your relatives' or ancestors' records, such as marriage bonds, property deeds, and other certificates.

RootsWeb.com is another popular genealogy website where you can upload your family tree information, as well as access more than 300,000 family trees and more than three billion records. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints also maintain a website (FamilySearch.org) to help people find their ancestors.