Rhode Island, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection contains vital and town records acquired from local town clerk offices for the years 1630 to 1915. Additional images and indexed records will be published as they become available. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable.

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. Some of the images in this collection are only available for viewing if you are a registered FamilySearch user. You can register for a free FamilySearch account here.

For additional information about image restrictions, please see the Restrictions for Viewing Images in FamilySearch Historical Record Collections page.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Vital and town records generally include:
 * Name of the primary individuals
 * Date of the event such as marriage or death
 * Place of the event
 * Name of other family members such as parents or spouse
 * Age
 * Birthplace
 * Residence
 * Occupation
 * Officiator at the service or event

Coverage Map
To see a coverage map of FamilySearch's holdings of Rhode Island marriages, click here.

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * Residence
 * Age
 * An approximate year of birth, marriage, or death
 * Any known family relationships

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names
 * Use the birth date or age 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
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family
 * The name of the officiator may be a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county
 * The name of the undertaker or mortuary could lead you to funeral and cemetery records, which often include the names and residences of other family members
 * Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have been born, married, or died in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct
 * The information in marriage 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 1900s
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one marriage record to another record

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames
 * Search for the marriage record of the marriage partner if known
 * Check for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties
 * Search the FamilySearch Catalog to see if other records for this place are available

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

"Rhode Island, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1630-1945." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Rhode Island State Archive, Providence City Archives, City and Town clerk offices.
 * Collection Citation:

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