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.

The collection consists of 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. Records have not been acquired for the following counties:

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?
To begin your search it is helpful to know at least some of the following:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The date of birth or death.
 * The place where the birth or death occurred.
 * The names of known relatives or associates.

Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information in the list to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several persons in the list before you find your ancestor.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Pagethen: ⇒Select the "County/Town" category ⇒Select the “Record Type, Date Range and Volume"



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 church and vital records such as birth, baptism, marriage, and death records. (Make sure that if it’s a marriage article, you take the word marriage out, if it’s a birth article, take the word birth out, etc.)
 * Use the information found in the record to find land, probate and immigration records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in censuses. 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 records of a nearby town or county.
 * 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