California, County Birth and Death Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States California

What Is in the Collection?
This collection includes birth and death records from 1800 to 1994, and very few marriage licenses.

The collection consists of an index and images of registers, records, and certificates of county birth and death records acquired from county courthouses. This collection contains some delayed birth records, as well. Some city and towns records are also included. Some images are not available for viewing between the years 1824-1974Records have not been acquired for the following counties:

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 images in this collection are not available for viewing. 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?
Birth records may include the following information:


 * Child's birth date
 * Place of birth
 * Name of Child
 * Gender
 * Race or Color
 * Number of children in family
 * Living or stillborn
 * Names of Parents
 * Race and nativity of parents
 * Father's occupation
 * Parents' birth place
 * Age of parents
 * Residence
 * Maiden name of mother
 * Legitimacy of child

Death records may include the following information:


 * Death date
 * Place of death
 * Name of deceased
 * Age at death
 * Gender
 * Nativity
 * Cause of Death
 * Attending physician

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:


 * Name of the person
 * The name of a parent or date of the event

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page. br>
 * 1) Select County/Town
 * 2) Select Record Type, Date Range and Volume

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.

For more tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Indexes and transcriptions may not include all the data found in the original records. Look at the actual image of the record, if you can, to verify the information and to find additional information.

What Do I Do Next?
If these are indexes, the original records may contain additional information than was not indexed, or the information might have been indexed incorrectly. You may want to search for the original record at the local county courthouse.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Copy the citation below, in case you need to find this record again later.
 * Use the age or estimated birth date to find other county or California Vital Records Index such as birth, baptism, marriage, and death records.
 * Search for death or burial information in local California Cemeteries and California Newspapers
 * Use the information found in the record to find California Land and Property.
 * Use the information found in the record to find California Probate Records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find California Naturalization and Citizenship.
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in the California Census. Witnesses were usually family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records were kept years before counties began keeping records. They are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching a nearby county California, Birth Index.
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Check the info box above for additional FamilySearch websites and related websites that may assist you in finding similar records.

Known Issues With This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

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):

Image Citation: Top of Page