Documenting Family Trees with Vital Records.... or not?

I belong to a number of genealogy groups on Facebook and via mailing lists.  Often, I read the following statements:

"I would like to locate a birth certificate for my John Doe, who was born around 1850 in Pittsburgh.  Can someone help?"

"I am looking for a marriage certificate for my ancestors Simon Johnson and Jane Doe, who married sometime around 1800 in Philadelphia."

"I need a death record for my great-great-uncle 2 times removed, who died in Western Pennsylvania around 1840.  Why can't I find it?"

(Yes, I know there is no such thing as an uncle 2 times removed.... and I use Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas as an example because I am most familiar with those records.)

The modern day notion that EVERYONE was issued a birth certificate, a death certificate, or a marriage licence is just that, a modern notion.  Many births, deaths, and even marriages were not registered by a civil government at all, and often the records may not exist even at a church level.  Often time, one may not find what they seek because they don't know the history of the area in which they are seeking and the history of vital records themselves.

BIRTH RECORDS

Let's start with birth records.

Before the United States were born (and in some places in the United States, long after the creation of the country), birth records were limited to baptism records done by churches (often with baptism dates standing in as proxy for birth dates since the birth date wasn't registered).  Some colonies, like Massachusetts, had implemented laws instituting the registration of births as early as 1639, although actually enforcing and following the law was a seemingly foreign matter since most births took place in private homes and ministers thought the idea of the government getting into the birth and baptism registration business was a matter to raise eyebrows at.

Philadelphia required births to be registered in 1860, but in practice not every birth was registered.  For example, my great-grandmother Julia Ann Vautier had ten siblings, and while I have registrations for nine of the siblings and my great-grandmother, the tenth sibling, Miriam Crosby Vautier, who was the fifth born child, doesn't appear to have been registered at birth. (Sister Laura's birth return is pictured below).

Laura Elizabeth (Vautier) entry, Return of Births in the City of Philadelphia 1860-1903, Doctor's Returns: Return of Births September 1890 for Mary Leichsenring, midwife, Philadelphia City Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Even though a number of high population cities had created some sort of registration of births to help track population, most states didn't even implement birth registrations as a whole until the advent of the 20th century.  An Act of Congress in 1902 created the permanent office of the Bureau of Census. In that Act on 6 March 1902 was included a provision that gave the Bureau the authority to create birth registrations and certificates.  Even the idea of having a semi-universal birth certificate wasn't fleshed out until World War Two, when people needed to prove their identities to be able to work in defense related plants and register to get social security. An example of one of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's birth records (for one of my great-uncles) is pictured below.

Pennsylvania, Birth Records, 1906-1910," database online with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 January 2017), Entry for James Newton Cox, born 30 October 1906; certificate number 136053; citing Pennsylvania (State). Birth certificates, 1906–1908. Series 11.89 (50 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

So keeping all of that in mind, sometimes it is important to realize that the elusive birth record might not exisit because the birth happened in a place where either registration wasn't required or during an era when records just weren't kept.  One has to get creative when looking for records of births sometimes because civil registrations just don't exist.

MARRIAGES

The idea of civil marriage licenses, on the other hand, is practically an American invention.  Before the institution of marriage became a civil matter, it was a church matter (a point that some religiously minded people make when they argue that marriages in America should go back to being religious in nature only).  But America was a forerunner in making sure registrations were done civilly.

That same Massachusetts legislation that required births to be registered also required marriages to be civilly recorded, and for one reason or another, registering marriages came easier to the same people who balked at registering births.  Perhaps it was because unlike births or deaths, marriages joined (usually) unrelated people and their property together in legally binding contracts.

By the mid 19th century, most counties and states in the United States had some sort of marriage registration or another.  In 1885, ALL counties in Pennsylvania required marriages to be civilly registered, although the larger cities, like Philadelphia, had begun requiring registrations of marriages as early as 1860 or before.  My great-grandparents' marriage return is an example of what could be found.

Charles W C Wood and Birdie B. Fielding Marriage License and Certificate, (23 April 1901), Allegheny County Marriage Licenses: File Number 13279; Department of Court Records, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

If a marriage record can't be located, don't despair.  There are other ways to find such records besides civil registries....... one just has to look.

DEATHS

Death records are in the same boat as are birth certificates.  Before the modern death certificate, churches kept records of burials, which often, like baptisms, stood as a proxy for a death date. Why people died often was a mystery before the advent of modern medicine, so death records were just merely records of when a person was buried.

In fact, the modern death record can be attributed to an English practice of issuing a Bill of Mortality when someone died, a practice that had roots in the Great Plagues of Europe in the 16th century.

Often, the same jurisdictions that required birth registrations at particular times in history also required death registrations, but the concept of a actual death certificate is about as modern as a birth certificate is.  Death records in a number of jurisdictions actually precede birth records, especially in large cities such as Philadelphia, which had a form of death registration as early as 1803, though there are gaps.  Below are two different jurisdictions for the same death of my ancestress, which demonstrate that even in death differing registrations could be made, recording facts in many ways.

"Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 July 2016), Entry for Sarah V. Fielding; died 4 October 1907; Certificate number: 95518; citing Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1963. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Sarah V. Fielding entry, Allegheny City Registration of Deaths, volume 15: page 95, Allegheny County City County Building, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Deaths were more likely to be recorded in earlier days than were births, given that death statistics were tracked with far more watchful eyes than were birth statistics.  Given that diseases and natural disasters wiped out a vast number of people in a relatively short amount of time, some sort of registration and acknowledgment of those deaths needed to be made.


NOW WHAT?

Something to keep in mind while searching for vital records.... especially in the early days of such vital record registering, some people were suspicious of the government getting involved in vital record keeping and as a result they purposely would not register their births, marriages, or deaths.  There was also the issue that not everyone thought everyone else was equal, and therefore did not count as being someone who needed a registration of a vital statistic.

Another thing to remember is that even the modern day system of vital records in the United States also relies on the fact that information being reported to whatever jurisdiction is being consistently reported by a number of people, including doctors, parents, registrants themselves, or funeral home directors. What happens if information isn't reported or is reported incorrectly?

Also, just because some counties, states or even countries have their vital records available for research doesn't mean the next county, state, or country will.  Different jurisdictions will have different rules on who can access their vital records and how one can access them.  For instance, only births from 1906-1913 and deaths from 1906 up to 1968 can be accessed for genealogical reasons via the Pennsylvania Museum Historical Commission.  Births and deaths before then (from about 1893 onward) are located at county level in Pennsylvania, and again, some cities (Pittsburgh, Allegheny City and Philadelphia in particular) can be found for years even earlier.

The best way to research whether or not vital records are available for a certain time or place is to use a search engine like Google, or FamilySearch's various free Wiki Research guides.

Some other good sources to help you find what you might be looking for:

• U.S. Vital Records Overview on FamilySearch 
• Finding The One: The Search For Vital Records on Ancestry.com
• A Guide to Using the Records of Civil Registration from Society of Genealogists at the National Family History Centre (Great Britain)
• Marriage Records : Types of Marriage Records for Family History Research on Thought.co

Sometimes, that elusive record won't be found, and that's okay as well.  There is more to genealogy than just recording birth, marriage, and death of an ancestor.

Sources Referenced to Help with this Research
Blakemore, Erin. "The History of Birth Certificates Is Shorter Than You Might Think." History.com. August 08, 2017. https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-birth-certificates-is-shorter-than-you-might-think.

Brumberg, H. L., D. Dozor, and S. G. Golombek. "History of the Birth Certificate: From Inception to the Future of Electronic Data." Journal of Perinatology 32, no. 6 (2012): 407-11. doi:10.1038/jp.2012.3.

Schulz, Katheryn. "Final Forms." The New Yorker, April 7, 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/07/final-forms.

Siri, Michael J., and Daniel L. Cork. Vital Statistics: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009. https://www.nap.edu/read/12714/chapter/1.

"United States Death Records." FamilySearch Blog. January 17, 2019. https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Death_Records.

"Unlocking the Past: Marriage License History." Marriage.com. October 30, 2017. https://www.marriage.com/advice/license/unlocking-the-past-marriage-license-history/.

"What Every Genealogist Needs to Know about American Marriage Records." Findmypast Blog. October 13, 2017. https://blog.findmypast.com/what-every-genealogist-needs-to-know-about-american-marriage-records-1785493041.html.