Vital Records

Vital Record - A term that refers to birth, marriage, divorce, and death records created by governments (FamilySearch wiki).

Vital records are amazing! They often contain names of parents, birth places and other valuable life events that can be extremely helpful in your research. Earlier records didn’t always provide all that extra details but they could have family listed as witnesses. Need to know what records are available? Check out the Redbook by Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Red_Book:_American_State,_County,_and_Town_Sources find the state you need and then search under state resources. Not all vital records are online or at FamilySearch. You might need to order the vital records from the local governments. You can use https://www.vitalchek.com/ for a small fee.