District of Columbia Birth Returns - FamilySearch Historical Records

{{FamilySearch_Collection
 * CID=CID2001148
 * title=District of Columbia, Birth Returns, 1874-1897
 * location=United States

Record Description
Images of birth returns and birth index registers from the Health Department in Washington, D.C. The birth returns name the parents but do not name the child.

Record Content
Key genealogical facts found in the County Birth and Death Records may contain the following information:




 * Birth date of child
 * Birth place of child
 * Number of child of Mother
 * Race or Color
 * Gender
 * Mother's Maiden Name
 * Mother's Birthplace
 * Mother's Residence
 * Full name of Father
 * Father's Occupation
 * Father's Birthplace

How to Use the Record
To begin your search it is helpful to know the following: •	Name of the child •	Approximate birth date •	Parents names •	Birth place

Compare the information in the birth record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination. Be aware that as with any index, transcription errors may occur.

When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. For example:

•	Use the birth date along with the place of birth to find the family in census records. •	Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records. •	The father’s occupation can lead you to employment records or other types of records such as military records. •	The parent’s birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.

It is often helpful to extract the information on all children with the same parents. If the surname is unusual, you may want to compile birth entries for every person of the same surname and sort them into families based on the names of the parents. Continue to search the birth records to identify siblings, parents, and other relatives in the same or other generations who were born in the same county or nearby.

Keep in mind:

•	The information in birth records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant. •	Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s. •	There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

Related Websites
'''This section of the article is incomplete. You can help FamilySearch Wiki by supplying links to related websites here.'''

District of Columbia Births on USGenweb Archives

Related Wiki Articles
District of Columbia Vital Records

District of Columbia Church Records

District of Columbia

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation Examples for a Record Found in a FamilySearch Historical Collection
'''The following are examples of records found in different collections. Please help us by replacing these examples with a citation for a record you have found in this collection.'''

“Delaware Marriage Records,” database and digital images, FamilySearch ([]: 4 March 2011), William Anderson and Elizabeth Baynard Henry, 1890; from Delaware, State Marriage Records 23 November 1913, no. 859, Delaware Bureau of Archives and Records Management, Dover; FHL microfilm 2,025,063.

When the citation has been replaced with a citation specific to the collection being described, the heading should be changed to one of the following:


 * “Citation Example for a Record Found in This Collection” in Heading style 5 for a single citation


 * “Citation Examples for Records Found in This Collection” in Heading style 5

for more than one citation example

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org Historical Records. It may include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.

Office of Registrar of Vital Statistics, District of Columbia. Births. Health Department, Washington, D.C.

Information about creating source citations for FamilySearch Historical Collections is found in the wiki article Help:How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.