Starting a family tree in the US: where to find the records

On the shelf at your grandparents' house stands a heavy family Bible. On the first pages, in three different handwritings, are births, weddings and deaths, the oldest from a town in a state you have never visited. Without knowing it, you are looking at the beginning of a family tree. This article shows you where to search next, and what of it is free in the United States.

The short answer

Start with what you have at home and with the relatives who can still tell you things. Then work back through the federal censuses, from 1950 to 1790, much of it free on FamilySearch and the 1950 census free at the National Archives. Birth, marriage and death certificates are kept by the states, so you order them from the state where the event happened. If your family came from abroad, naturalization papers and passenger lists take you across the ocean.

Step 1: start at home

The best sources are often in the house: a family Bible, obituaries cut from the newspaper, funeral cards, marriage certificates, discharge papers, letters and photos with a name on the back. Ask the older relatives too, and write down their answers while you can. For each person, note what you know for certain: full name, date and place of birth, marriage and death. Also note where you found it. A tree without sources can no longer be checked later.

Step 2: the census, every ten years

The federal census has been taken every ten years since 1790. It is the backbone of American family history. From 1790 to 1840, only the head of the household is named. The 1850 census was the first to name every free person in the household, with age and place of birth, so from then on you can follow a family from decade to decade.

• The 1950 census was released on 1 April 2022 and is free to search at 1950census.archives.gov, run by the National Archives.
• Older censuses from 1790 onward are online at FamilySearch (free with an account), in the National Archives Catalog (free) and on Ancestry (paid).
• The 72-year rule: census records stay confidential for 72 years, so the 1960 census is expected in 2032.

One gap to know about: most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire in Washington, DC, on 10 January 1921. Only fragments survive, along with special schedules of Union veterans and their widows. If you lose a family between 1880 and 1900, that fire is often the reason.

Step 3: vital records, from the states

In the United States, birth, marriage and death certificates are not kept by the federal government. Each state has a vital statistics office, and you order a certified copy from the state or territory where the event happened. The CDC keeps a page called Where to Write for Vital Records, with a link to every state office, its rules and its fees. Rules on who may order recent records differ from state to state, so read the state page before you send anything.

Step 4: before the states kept records

The further back you go, the fewer state certificates you will find. That is where other records take over:

• Probate records: wills and estate files, in many states kept at the county courthouse. They often name the spouse, the children and where they lived.
• The FamilySearch Wiki: it explains, state by state and county by county, which older records exist and where they are kept today. Always check which county a town belonged to at the time.
• Church registers: baptisms, marriages and burials. If you know which church the family attended, ask the congregation where its old registers are now.

Immigrant ancestors

Most American family trees cross an ocean somewhere. Two sources help you find where.

• Naturalization: before 27 September 1906, any court (municipal, county, state or federal) could grant citizenship, so the papers are with county and state courts, state archives or historical societies. After 1906, the declarations and petitions are usually at the National Archives facility serving the state where the court sat.
• The USCIS Genealogy Program holds naturalization certificate files from 1906 to 1956, alien registration forms filled in by every non-citizen aged 14 and older between August 1940 and March 1944, visa files from 1924 to 1944 and alien files from 1944 onward. An index search costs $30 online or $80 on paper, and a records request the same (checked September 2026).
• Passenger lists: the Ellis Island arrival lists from 1892 to 1925 are free on FamilySearch. Our guide on finding emigrant ancestors through the Red Star Line, Ellis Island and Canada shows you how to search them.

Other free sources

• FamilySearch: free for everyone, run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With a free account you can search indexed records, including censuses and passenger lists, and build your tree online.
• Social Security: for a person who has died, you can request a copy of their original application for a Social Security card (form SS-5) through a Freedom of Information Act request, online or by post. A fee applies.

A program for your family tree

Gramps is free and open source. Whichever program or website you use, make sure it exports to GEDCOM, the exchange format for family trees. If you have received or made such a file, thememorypalace.ai/gedcom shows you, for free and without an account, how many generations it covers, who the earliest known ancestor is and where the gaps are. The file never leaves your device.

From records to people

A census line tells you who lived in the house in 1920, not what supper at that table sounded like. That lives in the photos, the stories, the Bible someone kept. In The Memory Palace, the family tree comes in as GEDCOM and each generation gets a place next to its photos and stories, so that names become people again.