Birth Record Research Tip

Many British and European countries began requiring birth and death records nationally around the 1800s. Before that time period churches recorded the births when a child was christened or baptized. In the U.S. early birth records are rare, with a couple of exceptions, one being Connecticut, which began creating vital records in the 1600s. New Orleans followed suit around 1790 by requiring birth registration, and then the city of Boston and the state of Virginia in the mid 1800s started keeping birth records.