Rhode Island, State Births Index - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection consists of an index to state birth records at the State Department of Health for the years 1819 to 1900.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The index generally includes:


 * Name of informant
 * When registered
 * Date of birth
 * Child’s full name
 * Child's gender and race
 * Place of birth
 * Names of parents (including mother's maiden name)
 * Parents' place of residence
 * Father's occupation
 * Father's place of birth
 * Mother's place of birth

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:


 * The name of your ancestor
 * The date of birth
 * The place of birth
 * The name of the child's parents

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

What Do I Do Next?
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.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * 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 other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * The parents' 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.
 * This is only an index. Full birth records may contain additional information
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as later records.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from record to record.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.

Record Finder
Consult the Rhode Island Research Tips and Strategies and its Record Finder to search other records.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection citation:

Record citation (or citation for the index entry):

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