Daily AncestorThe records your ancestors left
What each kind of record holds, where to see it for free, and what to look for on the page.
By kind of record
Birth records and delayed birth certificates
Birth records name a child, date, place and parents, but most states registered births well after 1900, so many older people later filed delayed certificates.
Record guideChurch records: baptisms, marriages and burials
Church registers recorded baptisms, marriages and burials long before states kept vital records, often naming parents, godparents and the family's home village.
Record guideCity directories
City directories list a town's residents with addresses and jobs, often year by year, so they show where your ancestor lived between censuses.
Record guideCounty court records
County court records, from order books to guardianships and lawsuits, name ordinary people in everyday business and often prove family relationships.
Record guideDeath certificates
A death certificate gives the date, place and cause of death, and often the parents' names and birthplaces, but those family details came from an informant who may have guessed.
Record guideFreedmen's Bureau records
Freedmen's Bureau records, 1865 to 1872, include labor contracts, marriage records, relief lists and letters that name formerly enslaved people and their families.
Record guideLand records: deeds, patents and surveys
Land records place your ancestor on a specific piece of ground on a specific date, and deeds between relatives often prove family ties that no other record states.
Record guideMarriage records
Marriage records include licenses, bonds, consents, banns, ministers' returns and registers; each step left a different paper with different clues.
Record guideMilitary pension files
A military pension file can hold an old soldier's own story of his service, his marriage date and his children's names, all sworn before a judge to win a few dollars a month.
Record guideMilitary service records and WWI draft cards
Service records show when and where a soldier served; WWI draft cards, filled out in 1917 and 1918 by about 24 million men, give birth dates and places.
Record guideNaturalization records
Naturalization papers record how an immigrant became a U.S. citizen; after September 27, 1906 they usually give the birth date, hometown, ship and arrival date.
Record guideOld newspapers: death and marriage notices
Old newspapers recorded deaths, marriages and local comings and goings, often naming relatives and hometowns; Chronicling America lets you search millions of pages free.
Record guidePassenger lists before 1925
Passenger lists, or ship manifests, record immigrants as they arrived; from 1820 they give name, age and country, and later lists add much more.
Record guideReading old gravestones
An old gravestone can give exact dates, an age to the day and a spouse's name, but it was often carved years later, so read it carefully and never harm the stone.
Record guideWills and probate records
A will and its probate file can name a wife, every living child, married daughters' husbands and grandchildren in one place, often decades before any birth certificate existed.