Utah genealogy records

Births and deaths before 1905

No Utah government agency had to record births or deaths before 1898. Some cities did it anyway: Salt Lake City and Ogden began registering births in 1890 and Park City in 1892, and some cities registered deaths before 1898. The Utah State Archives holds the Ogden birth register for 1890 to 1905 and the Park City birth register for 1892 to 1897, and the Salt Lake County Archives has birth records from 1890 to 1915. For other places, the Archives suggests cemetery and burial records, newspaper obituaries, and private family and church records.

From 1898, county clerks became responsible for recording births and deaths. For the county death registers, a name index to all counties prepared by the Utah Genealogical Society is available in the Archives reference room.

Birth certificates from 1905

In 1905, the Utah Department of Health took responsibility for creating a birth certificate for everyone born in Utah. Birth certificates are private for 100 years from the date of birth. The State Archives holds state birth certificates for 1905 to 1924, with an online index, and a Soundex birth certificate index for 1904 to 1934. As of 2025, the Archives said the transfer of 1925 birth certificates was still in progress, and copies of those had to be requested from the Office of Vital Records and Statistics in the meantime.

Look for delayed birth certificates too. People born before statewide registration, or whose births were not registered in time, often filed one later. Utah issued them informally from around 1916 and codified them in law in 1953, and most were filed in the 1940s. The Archives holds a series of delayed certificates of birth from 1905 on.

Death certificates from 1904

The state's death certificate series at the Archives begins in 1904, and a 1905 law required all deaths and births in Utah to be registered. A certificate gives the full name, date of death, county, place and date of birth, marital status, occupation, residence, place and date of burial, cause of death, and the names and birthplaces of the parents. From 1904 to 1910, certificates were filed both in the county where the death occurred and in the county of burial.

Death certificates are private for 50 years from the date of death. A 1998 law made historic death records public after 50 years, and each January a new year of certificates becomes available. The Archives offers a free online name index, and its Death Records guide lists the certificates it holds as running through 1976; the series is part of its Digital Archives. Copies are also on FamilySearch and Ancestry. The Archives also holds military death certificates for 1941 to 1953, for service members killed in World War II and the Korean War whose bodies were returned to Utah for burial.

Ordering recent certificates

The Office of Vital Records and Statistics has births, stillbirths, and deaths from 1905 to the present, and marriages and divorces only from 1978 to 2010. Certificates can be requested by the person named, an immediate family member, a legal guardian, or a designated legal representative, and family members must prove the relationship. You can order online, by mail, or in person at most local health departments. As of 2026, the state fee schedule lists 25 dollars for a first certified birth certificate and 35 dollars for a first death certificate, with additional copies of the same record ordered the same day at 10 dollars each.

Marriages

Utah civil marriage records generally do not exist before 1887. In 1872 the territorial governor remarked that Utah had no statute law on marriage, and that stayed largely true until the federal Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 required a record of marriage. From 1888, county clerks have issued marriage licenses and certificates. For a marriage before 1887, you will need other libraries and sources beyond a few surviving justice of the peace records.

Most marriage applications and licenses are still in the county clerks' offices, and the State Archives holds only a limited number of county records. Some counties have records online or on FamilySearch, which microfilmed most Utah counties' records in 1966. BYU-Idaho's Western States Marriage Records Index covers marriages from all Utah counties. The state vital records office only has marriages from 1978 to 2010; for other years, ask the county clerk.

Census records

Utah became a territory in September 1850, and its 1850 census was actually taken in 1851, with an official census day of April 1, 1851, and completion in July 1851. The original schedules were copied by hand and the copy was sent to Washington. That federal copy is on National Archives microfilm M432 and on the major genealogy websites, and the National Archives notes that it lists known enslaved Black people among the free population. The original enumeration is MS 2672, Utah Territorial Census, 1851, in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, with digital images online. A separate page lists 26 enslaved people in Utah County who were on their way to San Bernardino, California.

Courts and probate

The proposed State of Deseret approved county courts and justices of the peace on January 9, 1850, and the legislature set up county probate courts in January 1851. Today the district courts handle probate, divorce, adoption, and name changes, and naturalization was often handled by the courts. Probate cases most often establish a valid will for the estate of someone who died.

Court case files generally stay at the court for about fifty years before they may move to the State Archives. To search, you need the jurisdiction, usually the county where one of the parties lived, and the Archives has a historical chart of counties and court districts, including extinct counties.