If you haven’t yet visited FamilySearch’s Record Search, it might be worth your time to check it out.
The free site has a number of genealogical collections, including census and vital records. Most collection are for the United States, but a few are for other countries.
For those of us with 19th century Michigan ancestors, it is a godsend because it includes Michigan birth records, 1867-1902; Michigan marriage records, 1868-1925; and Michigan death records, 1867-1897.
Michigan started statewide registration of vital records in 1867, and the records on FamilySearch’s Record Search are the copies sent to the state from the counties.
Early Michigan death records have been available online for a number of years from the Michigan Department of Community Health’s Genealogical Death Indexing System or GENDIS, but the FamilySearch site also links to the digital image of the record.
Within the first hour of visiting the site I found the birth record for my great-grandfather, something I had sought for years. I also found information about several of his siblings as well as other family members.
Because this is a pilot project, the entire site or certain record collections are not available at certain times. There are other quirks as well. One afternoon, for example, I found a death record linked to the digital image of a marriage record.
Overall, however, it is an impressive site that is easy to use. You can search for records in a number of ways — by name, life event, or place. You can further narrow your search results by gender, record collection, or other criteria.
You also can save copies of the digital images or copies of the record transcriptions to your computer for later review.
FamilySearch’s Record Search is part of FamilySearch Labs.
What a great find! I was able to locate my great-grandfather’s death certificate after searching all over Ohio and Illinois over a span of 25 years as I did not know the date or place of his death! So you can only imagine my delight when I discovered this wonderful piece of data! I want to thank all those who have made this site possible. Helen Murphy, Tennessee.
A new cousin a day keeps the boredom away
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