New Hampshire genealogy records

Which vital records are open

New Hampshire vital records are considered private, and access is restricted to people with a direct and tangible interest in the record, under state law. Certain older records are exempt: birth records older than 100 years, and death, marriage, and divorce records older than 50 years, are available with unrestricted access (as of 2026).

In Colebrook, for example, you request a newer record, such as a parent's birth certificate, as a certified abstract in writing from the town clerk. A birth or death request asks for the name, date, and place of the event, the mother's first and maiden name, the father's name, the purpose, and your relationship to the person, with a copy of your photo ID if you order by mail. New Hampshire law sets a nonrefundable search fee of 15 dollars for each record requested, which includes the first certified copy; extra copies of the same record ordered at the same time cost 10 dollars each (as of 2026, per the Town of Colebrook).

The Genealogical Research Center in Concord

Researchers can search the open records at the Genealogical Research Center of the Division of Vital Records, at 9 Ratification Way in Concord, the address formerly given as 71 South Fruit Street. Some town pages still list the old address.

According to the City of Keene, the state has records for the entire state, and genealogy volunteers help visitors do their own research there on weekdays. The only cost for this self-serve research is a photocopy of the record, made on a coin-operated copier, so bring quarters. You can also mail a genealogy request to the Division of Vital Records Administration with a copy of your photo ID; Keene gives the cost as 15 dollars for each record requested (as of 2026).

Access can be limited when a record is too frail to be photocopied, when it is stored near confidential records, or when space and staff are short, under RSA 5-C:106. Some towns publish a list of restricted volumes in frail condition.

Town clerks

You can also see open records through the town clerk where the original record was filed. In Keene, for example, the city clerk will search events in the city if you give the names and the date of the event; if you do not know the name or the date, the search has to be done by the state.

Practices differ from town to town. Keene charges a 15 dollar search fee and answers genealogy requests within 30 days, putting more urgent requests first. In Laconia, certain records can be reviewed in the clerk's office, subject to the same limits on frail records.

Census records

The 1820 federal census for New Hampshire has large gaps. There are no 1820 schedules for all of Grafton County, for Gosport, Greenland, New Castle, Newington, Portsmouth, and Rye in Rockingham County, or for Strafford County except Centre Harbor, Gilford, Moultonborough, New Hampton, and Sanbornton.

Coos County censuses may be incomplete before 1850, because many people in northern Coos County considered themselves under Canadian jurisdiction until the boundary dispute with Canada was settled in 1842.

Most of the 1890 federal census was destroyed after a 1921 fire, but the special 1890 schedules of Union Civil War veterans and their widows survive for New Hampshire.

Land records

New Hampshire land records are kept by county registries of deeds, which record deeds, mortgages, plans, and other documents affecting real estate. Coverage reaches far back. The Rockingham County Registry of Deeds keeps official records from 1629 to the present, all computerized with index and image. In Belknap County, recorded documents, plans, and indexes back to 1765 can be viewed online for free. Records there are indexed by the owner's name, not the property address, and registry staff explain the index but will not search the records for you.

The New Hampshire Historical Society library

The New Hampshire Historical Society library holds printed vital records for many New Hampshire towns, cemetery inscriptions for many towns, and original church records with births, deaths, baptisms, and marriages, which can help verify or replace a missing town record. It also has family histories, a Family Bible Records Collection, town and county histories, and William Copeley's Index to Genealogies in New Hampshire Town Histories.

For military ancestors, the library has the American Revolutionary rolls printed in the State Papers of New Hampshire, Revolutionary War and War of 1812 pension record abstracts, and books listing Civil War participants from New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Library patrons can use Ancestry and American Ancestors on the reading room computers.