Substitute Birth, Marriage and Death Sources

 When doing family history, obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates are not always easily obtainable .  To purchase a birth certificate, your ancestor's date of death has to be on file for 75 years and the person on the certificate is known to be deceased.  Marriage certificates are 50 years on file and both have to be deceased.   Death certificates are 50 years from the person's date of death.   

Are there ever exceptions?  Time periods are waived for direct line descendants. A direct line descendant is a person in the direct line of descent, i.e., the child, grandchild, great grandchild of the person whose record is requested. The direct line descendant applicant must provide the following:  Proof of their relationship to the person whose record they are requesting. Proof of the death of the person whose birth certificate they are requesting. .  If you are searching for birth, marriage, and death information for an ancestor who was born, married, or died before vital records were kept in the United States, use substitute or secondary sources. Substitute birth, marriage, and death records include:

• The U.S. Federal Census records which give the age and state or country of birth for each household member from 1850 to 1940, and the 1900 census gives the month and year of birth. Marriage information can be found on the 1850 through 1910 censuses (this includes whether a person had been divorced or widowed).
• Death certificates for birth information, although on a death certificate, birth information is considered a secondary source.
• More recent marriage records contain age or birth date of the bride and groom and their parents.
• Church records include birth date, place and parents' names in baptismal records, marriage information, and include the deceased's age in burial records.
• Military records: World War I and World War II draft records may include the birth date and place depending on the registration cards. Pension records can include the birth, marriage, and death date and place.
• Family Bible: Birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, and sometimes places for these events may be included in a family Bible.
• Obituaries usually contain a rich variety of vital and biographical information, including name and place of residence of close family and friends, descendant's death date and place and birth date and place, marriage date, occupation, military service, religion, schools attended, parent’s names, places of residence over time, and place of origin. Sometimes you can luck out and find a picture.  When you look on the right side under resources, find the genealogy link.  It will have online newspaper links.  It can be time consuming but can be very worth your while.