Marriage and divorce records can be incredibly useful. In most states, these records are open to the public, and some progressive counties have even computerized them. You will probably not be able to send a written request unless you know with some certainty the date of the marriage or divorce, so you will need to go to the courthouse in the county of your search yourself, find a volunteer to do it for you, or utilize a Family History Center, which will be discussed in more detail below. In most counties, marriage records are organized by decade and are available on microfilm. Sometimes they will be sitting out in a common area for anyone to use, along with several microfilm readers. In other counties, you will have to go to the counter and request to look at certain decades. Given that you, in all likelihood, will have no idea when, where or who your birthparent(s ) married, the search is usually suprisingly easy. The records are usually organized alphabetically or by soundex rather than chronilogically, and they are indexed first by the groom's name, with the bride's name listed beside it, and then at the end of those entries, they reverse them and list them first by brides name, so you can search for either your birthfather or birthmother using marriage records. The point of a marriage search is twofold. First off, if you only have a last name, you are trying to find someone with that last name who matches the age and other information of your birthparent, in order to obtain their first name. Also, in the case of a birthmother, she will likely not have retained her maiden name, and you will need her married name in order to locate her. The marriage entries will have file numbers next to them, and you should copy down all of the ones that are relevant, then you will return to the counter and ask for hard copies of the marriage licenses with the file numbers that you notated. Marriage licenses usually contain helpful information such as birthdates or ages, places of birth, current residence, and the name of witnesses to the marriage.

Remember that there is a decent chance that your birthparent(s)did not get married in the county of your birth, but there's also a good chance that they did. If your search proves fruitless, however, pursue the same strategy that you did with the city directories, by widening your search. If you need to narrow the dates, try locating your birthmother in a city directory listing, then searcing marriage records for the year when her entry falls out of the city directory. That could just indicate a move, but it could also indicate a marriage.

Divorce records will often yield more information than marriage licenses, but they can be harder to gain access to, and harder to search.

If you need to know where a local Vital Records office or Department of Health is located, and what you might find there, Family TreeMaker has an excellent Webpage that will tell you who has what records, for what years, and gives addresses and phone numbers. If you are searching in the UK or Ireland, check here.

Obituaries

Hopefully your birthparent(s) are not deceased, however it is possible that one or both of your grandparents will be. You can find the deaths of everyone with the last name that you are working with by looking in the state death index (available at most libraries) or Social Security Death Index, then look up the obituary in the appropriate newspaper or obituary index. Many obituaries will give details on the name and location of the surviving children of the deceased, which in this case will be your birthparent(s). SOme newspapers have archived their obituaries online. Genealogy Resources on the Internet has a link to some of these on their obituary page.

Military and military personnel records

If you have a name, and an indication from your non-ID or other sources that members of your birthfamily served in the military, there are sources on and offline that can provide you with other crucial bits of information. The Freedom of Information Act allows individuals to request certain records on both living and decased military personnel regardless of their relationship to the individual, or reason for the request. Information obtainable under the FOIA includes Name, Service Number,Rank,Dates of Service,Awards and decorations and City/town and state of last known address including date of the address. If the veteran is deceased you are entitled to Place of birth, Geographical location of death, and Place of burial. To find out where to write for records, visit the National Archives and Records Administration dealing with military personnel records.

For those searching in Canada, The National Archives of Canada has personnel files of over 5,500,000 former military and civilian employees of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Federal Public Service. Documents in these records contain information about the individual's employment history with Federal Departments, the military units with which he or she served, pension details, and more.

Military City offers a searchable database of active duty, reserves, and some deceased military men and women, and the United States Combat Casualty Digest offers a searchable database for Vietnam War and other military casualties.

Continue to section three of I have a name! Uh, now what?

This post was authored by Shea Grimm except where otherwise indicated. It may be copied and distributed freely, in whole or part, as long as it is not sold, and as long as this notice is kept intact.