California State Vital Records Office Information Due to budget cuts, on November 26, 2003, the vitals records office has closed their Sacramento public counter service for certified copies of birth and death records. All requests must be submitted by mail. Click here for more details Check or money order should be made payable to Office of Vital Records. Personal checks are accepted. Due to shortage of staff, the processing time for copies of vital records is 15-20 weeks. The fee covers a 10-year period search (if necessary) for the record requested.
If you would like to fax your request there is an additional fee of $7.00. Please include the following additional information when faxing your request: - MC, Visa, Am Express or Discover card number and expiration date
- Daytime telephone number
- Return address where you would like the certificate mailed.
- Search California Databases online for birth, marriage, census, death, immigration, naturalization, military records and more at Ancestry
- Search the Social Security Death Index online for FREE
- Find birth and death records online quickly and easily
Index to California County Vital Records Offices
Tips for Finding and Using California Vital Records The state of California is a very large one, yet every year thousands of people move to the state and there is still plenty of room for people to live there. This can be tricky if you’re from California, or if your family is, as there are so many people it can be ridiculously difficult to find anyone, even if you happen to know their full name. Unless, that is, you know how to do it correctly. With the help of the right websites you can easily access all of the information that you need about any of your relatives, even those who died a long time ago. But how can you access these records easily?
Great Tips
For starters you’ll have to get comfortable with California vital records. But what are California vital records? Vital records are records that tell you about the life and death of someone. They include things like birth and death records, which is exactly what you’ll need to access if you’re trying to locate someone or if you’re trying to fill in the missing branches of your family tree. There are, however, a few problems with accessing some of these records, and most of them occur simply because the person who is trying to access them simply doesn’t know how to do it correctly or where to go.
Let’s start with the first tip: the first tip is to know your prey. This means that you should know exactly who you’re trying to locate. Get a first name and a last name and, if it’s a woman, a maiden name if possible. This makes it much easier to find things like California death records or even California birth certificates.
The next tip is to be flexible! Another problem that people have when they’re trying to access California vital records is that they’re so fixated on finding the exact record that they want that they forget that they may be able to get the information that they need out of other documents as well as the one they’re looking for. For instance California death records may tell you the name of the person that you are looking for’s parents, as this information is often included on the records. And California birth certificates are a great place to turn if you’re looking for records about parents as well as records about their child.
And the final tip is to make sure that you write everything down. That is where most people wind up having a huge problem. They assume that they’ll be able to remember everything and then wind up getting very frustrated when they can’t. Instead of dealing with frustrating, keep copies of all of the California birth certificates and California death records you find and take the time to write everything down as well. These tips will help you to navigate through the California vital records easily so that you’re able to access any information that you’re looking for.
Searchable Databases and other Helpful Links- California USGenWeb Project
genealogical gateway to the state and counties - Search California Databases Online
Search for birth, marriage, census, death, immigration, naturalization, military records and more at Ancestry - Now Available! Family Tree Maker 2012!
the bestselling, easy-to-use family tree software will help you create, grow, and share the story of your own - Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - California
your genealogy starting point online for more than a decade! - California Census Records at CensusFinder
features a directory of census records available online for California - Genealogy Today
unique collection of databases and innovative search tools, original articles from experienced genealogists - California Birth Index, 1905-10
an index to over 24.5 million births occurring in California between 1905 and 1995 at Ancestry - California Deaths, 1940-97
The database provides such valuable information as first, last and middle names of the descendants, birth dates, mother's maiden name, father's last name, sex, birth place, death place, residence at time of death, death date at Ancestry - California Marriages, 1850-1877
- California Marriages, 1960-1985
search index to over 4.8 million marriages at Ancestry - California Cemetery Inscription Sources
contains the cemetery inscription sources for the state of California. Organized by county and cemetery name, it provides the researcher an invaluable tool in finding headstone inscriptions when travel to the cemetery is not possible at Ancestry - California Pioneers, 1542-1848
California inhabitants, pioneers, and a pioneer register at Ancestry - California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957
an index to the passenger lists of ships arriving from foreign ports at the port of San Francisco at Ancestry
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