Anyone know where I can find birth records online for free?

Question

Tried ancestry.com and it requires payment, also I don't know the last name but I know the first name, location and date, can someone please reccomend a website that doesn't charge?

Answer 1

https://familysearch.org/search

has some. One - just one, out of thousands - of their collections is "California, Birth Index, 1905-1995". Another is "Texas, Birth Certificates, 1903-1935".



http://usgenweb.org/

has some. Click on the state you are interested in, then look for the county you are interested in and click on it.



http://genealogy.az.gov/

has some - Arizona, over 75 years ago



http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_bcsearch.aspx

has some. Here are the first 6 counties and the dates they have for them:

Barbour: 1833, 1853 - 1913

Berkeley: 1860, 1862 - 1913

Boone: 1822, 1832, 1862, 1865 - 1910

Braxton: 1853 - 1862, 1865 - 1913

Brooke: 1852 - 1862, 1864 - 1913

Cabell: 1811, 1853 - 1854, 1856, 1864 - 1865, 1867 - 1913



By now I hope you see something - there ARE free birth records on-line, but there is no comprehensive site. If you specify a time frame and a state (county would be even better) we may be able to direct you to a site that will meet your needs.



However, I suspect you are looking for someone born in the last 20 years; with very rare exception those records are not on-line, to prevent identity theft.



I also suspect you won't bother to add details or ask a a new question with a state and date range. You probably won't be able to read this far on your smart phone, either. I tried, though.

Answer 2

Birth records are civil registration and so you will not find any online free or otherwise, you have to order and pay for a copy of the birth record as they are held by the Governments of the country. What you may find are birth indexes and several countries do have birth indexes free to view, this normally tells you the quarter of the year a person was registered and the district they were registered in, this allows you enough information to order the birth record.



What you may find are transcriptions of baptisms however remember that baptism is not birth date, children were baptised anything from 1 day old and yesterday I was looking for an ancestor and found he was baptised aged 26yrs old only known as I already have his birth certificate and clearly because he wished to marry in church and couldn't until he was baptised, others looking at it without the certificate of birth date may think he was born the same year as he was baptised.



If you state the country then someone may be able to signpost you to relevant birth indexes and/or baptism records which are free ( and online) your library has free ancestry.com access and your local records office is free and has the real parish records, so many free resources but you have to remove the idea you have that these will be online, as most are not free or if you pay

Answer 3

Birth records of LIVING PERSONS are considered confidential and are protected by laws in all states. The main reason for this is both privacy and protecting persons from identity theft.

HISTORICAL birth records are not the same. They are normally used by genealogists, who are working to trace their ancestry. So, those persons have a legitimate use for the documents, since it involves someone actually related.

By how you worded your question.. it is pretty clear that the person born is NOT a relative, or you would know the last name involved. So the state assumes you don't have a legal reason or right to private data. If I'm mistaken, and it is a relative, then you need to be in court to file for rights to info about that child.

Answer 4

Most websites will charge you--for reproducing the record and sending it to you. But start with the city/state or location your records will be held in--for instance, if you want a record from 1960, in (as an example) Columbus, Ohio, you would go to the city website and search for birth records. Start by Googling (*name, city born in, birth records) and see what comes up. Most municipalities still charge you for getting a birth certificate.

Answer 5

You can try familysearch.org, however, you will find historical documents are usually indexes of birth. marriage and death. Also

Without Surname it is very difficult to trace someone. Oh and if you are attempting to trace of locate a living person, Genealogy site are not helpful, as the maintain the accepted standard of not releasing information on living people.

Answer 6

It depends on the country - all states have some records held.

In the UK the register is constantly being expanded - and the UK census returns are now available online.