Family Historians use a wide variety of records in their research. To effectively conduct research, it is important to understand how the records were created, what information is included in them, and how and where to access them.

In England, for instance, record-keeping started with parish registers in the early 1500s as the government began keeping records of common persons to keep track of its citizens. Major life events, such as births, marriages, and deaths, were often documented with a license, permit, or report.  These types of records can be found in many archives and repositories around the world. By extracting information from these records, family historians are able to recreate timelines of a person’s life.

Some examples of records used in family history research:

> Adoption Records

> Birth, Death and Marriage Records

> Biographies and biographical profiles

> Cemetery Records

> Censuses

> City Directories & Telephone Directories

> Convict Records – Indents, Returns, Ticket of Leave, Conditional Pardon, etc.

> Coroner’s Reports

> Court Records

> Diaries, personal letters and family Bibles

> Divorce Records

> DNA tests

> Electoral Rolls

> Emigration, immigration and naturalization records

> Hereditary & Lineage Records

> Hospital and Asylum Records

> Land and Property Records

> Maps

> Military Records

> Newspaper Articles

> Obituaries

> Occupational Records

> Oral Histories

> Orphan, Foster and Wards of State Records

> Parish Registers – Baptisms, Marriages and Burial Records

> Passports

> Pension Records

> Photographs

> School Records

> Tax records

> Wills and Probate Records

> Workhouse Records