The seven categories US researchers actually work with
- Census records. The federal census (1790–1950) is the backbone. It names every household, snapshots them every ten years, and — after 1850 — records every individual by name. See the census records guide.
- Vital records. Birth, marriage, and death certificates. State registration in the US didn't begin uniformly until the early 20th century — Massachusetts started in 1841, most Southern states not until the 1910s. See birth and death records.
- Church records. Baptisms, marriages, and burials in parish registers often predate civil registration by centuries. Diocesan archives (Catholic), presbytery records (Presbyterian), and monthly meeting minutes (Quaker) each have their own catalog conventions.
- Land records. Deeds, patents, and homestead files. Land is the everyday record that names a person by legal identity. The US Bureau of Land Management holds federal land patents from 1788.
- Probate records. Wills, inventories, guardianship files. Probate names spouses, children, and often grandchildren — the fastest way to prove a family unit that predates the census's individual-name era.
- Immigration and naturalization. Passenger arrival lists (Ellis Island 1892–1954, port-by-port records earlier), naturalization petitions, and — for Asian ancestors — the Chinese Exclusion case files at NARA.
- Military records. Service files, pension applications, draft registrations. The Revolutionary War pension files at NARA are unusually rich; the 1973 St. Louis fire destroyed a substantial share of 20th-century Army personnel files, and researchers pivot to Veterans Administration records.
A quick reference: what to open first
| You want to prove… | Open first | Then confirm with |
|---|---|---|
| A person existed in 1920 | 1920 US federal census | State census, city directory |
| Parents of a child born 1905 | Birth certificate (if state registered) | Baptism register, 1910 census |
| Marriage between two people | County marriage return | Church register, newspaper notice |
| Immigration year and port | Naturalization petition | Passenger manifest, census immigration column |
| Death of an ancestor pre-1900 | Cemetery record, church burial | Probate file, obituary in Chronicling America |
| Ancestor's occupation and land | Federal land patent (BLM) | County deed book, tax list |
| Formerly enslaved ancestor 1865+ | Freedmen's Bureau records | 1870 census (first free-name listing), church register |
The reliability question, honestly
No record is perfect. A birth certificate signed by the delivering doctor is the strongest US vital record; a death certificate is only as reliable as the informant — often a grieving spouse who never met the deceased's parents. A census enumerator recorded what the person who answered the door said, and that person might have been the neighbor. A ship's manifest recorded a name as the clerk heard it.
The way through this is not to rank records by trust and pick the top one. It's to gather multiple independent sources and read them together. When three disagree, the truth is usually in what two of them have in common — plus your judgment about why the third might be wrong.
Record types in depth
The single most-used genealogy source in the US. Federal census 1790–1950 (with 1890 largely lost), state censuses in between.
State-issued from the early 20th century onward. Delayed birth certificates and church baptism registers fill the gap earlier.
Certificates, obituaries, cemetery lists, funeral home ledgers, and the Social Security Death Index.
Land, tax, court, and probate — the everyday paperwork that names people the census missed.
For a walkthrough on how to use these records in a real search, see the ancestor search guide. To attach any of them to a person in your tree, open the family tree maker and paste the citation into the source field.