Digital Branch: Vital Records for Genealogy: Resources

Introduction

Vital records include many types of documents such as birth, marriage, and death certificates. These records offer dates and other information that can be some of the best things to add, and begin your family history. This guide will provide you with websites to help you understand all the things vital records can be, and where they can be found. Additionally, you will find a section for locating cemetery information. Finally, the Library has several great, genealogy, and newspaper databases that you can use to search for vital records and other information that may be useful to your family research. Link to those databases from the righthand column "E-Resources."

What are Vital Records & How Can I Find Them?

FamilySearch.org: All About United States Vital Records
This is one of the best resources out there for explaining what vital records are, and how they can benefit your family history search.
FamilySearch.org: United States Vital Records
Vital records are birth, marriage, divorce, and death records kept by the government. These records provide names, dates, places, and relationships—information that uniquely identifies a person. Vital records are primary sources (created at the time of an event by a reliable witness) and the information on them is usually correct. Vital records provide a strong foundation for building a true and valid pedigree.
Boston Public Library: Vital Records & Genealogy
Vital Records are government produced records documenting births, marriages, and deaths. They are important sources of information in genealogy research and can be good jumping off points if you are starting out on your research. They can contain information about where someone lived, what their occupation was plus information about their parents, spouse, or children.

Where to Obtain Vital Records: Official Copies & Other Resources

Natick Town Clerk
Official certificates for birth, marriage, and death of Natick residents may be obtained from the Town Clerk's office. All certificates are $10.00 each. If you would like us to make sure that the records you are seeking are located in Natick please email us at townclerk@natickma.org. You can also call the Town Clerk's office at 508-647-6430 x4.
Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records & Statistics
RVRS administers and issues copies of vital records that occurred in Massachusetts from 1926 to the present. RVRS also provides statistics on births, deaths, fetal deaths, divorces, and marriages. These data are used by local and state public health programs and medical researchers to help understand our population, promote wellness, and ensure health equity within the Commonwealth.
Where to Write for Vital Records if Event Did Not Take Place in Massachusetts
The CDC provides links to all states and US territories where you can obtain official certificates for vital statistics. To use this any of these links, you must first determine the state or area where the birth, death, marriage, or divorce occurred, then click on that state or area. You will then be directed to the specific office in that state or territory to obtain the information.
Boston Public Library: Vital Records LibGuide
Provides a great overview and many links for finding vital records in Boston, surrounding areas, and New England. Other resources are mentioned.
Massachusetts State Archives
Vital records for events that occurred from 1841–1925.
Replace Your Vital Records
This website offers all the steps you need to do, and be aware of to replace all vital records. It is always important to check what documents are required to request a vital record. If the record is being used as evidence, you may need to check what is required from that organization as well.

International Vital Records

United States Citizens Abroad Vital Records
Learn how to find birth, marriage or death documentation records for United States citizens when the vital records event occurred in a foreign country, or on the high seas.
VitalRec.com
Links to information sources for Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic & Slovakia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland
Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden, and Wales. Many links lead to sources on Ancestry.com, however there are links to country specific history societies that may often have resources digitally available to search for free.
Cyndi's List
Cyndi's List is one of the best places to check for anything genealogy. There are a multitude of categories for individual countries, and more.
Helpful International Websites
Depending on the country, they may include research instructions, reference material, indexes to church-, civil-, and other records, document images, and transcriptions.
THE COHENS' WEBSITE AT ROOTSWEB
While a bit hard to follow, this website is updated frequently. You will find links to international sites that offer types of vital records.

Natick Cemeteries & Finding Cemeteries in Other Areas

Natick has eight cemeteries located in the town: Boden Lane Cemetery, Glenwood Cemetery, Dell Park Cemetery (Old and New), Framingham-Natick Hebrew Cemetery, the Indian Cemetery, North Cemetery, South Natick Burial Ground, St. Patrick's Cemetery.

If you have the date of death but don't know the location of a grave, or which cemetery the grave is located in, checking FindAGrave.com is one of the best places to start. Started in 1995, information for FindAGrave.com is made possible by thousands of volunteers who new listings, updates, corrections, photographs, every hour. Additionally, people ass information about cemeteries to the site to help identify the final disposition information of the people buried there. Site management is done by the FindAGrave administrative team, and are not associated with the cemetery and don't have any information beyond what volunteers add. For more information about a specific cemetery, contact that cemetery.

Here is a list of the Natick Cemeteries included in FindAGrave.com, and the memorials that are included. Remember, updating FindAGrave.com memorial information is on-going. So it is possible the person you are looking for has not yet been added to the FindAGrave.com resource.

Boden Lane Cemetery: 1805 - 1996

Glenwood Cemetery: 1796 - mid 2020

Dell Park Cemetery (Old & New): 1794 - mid 2020

Framingham-Natick Hebrew Cemetery: 1907 up to mid-2020

North Cemetery: 1744 - mid-2020

South Natick Burial Ground: 1733 - 1992

St. Patrick's Cemetery: 1826 - mid-2020

Indian Cemetery: FindAGrave does not have listings at this point.

8 Steps to Find A Loved One's Grave in a Cemetery
If you haven’t taken the time to find the gravesites for your ancestors, you might feel like a piece of your genealogy puzzle is missing. Visiting the grave of an ancestor is often a powerful experience. It puts your lineage and mortality in perspective, and it’s also an opportunity to respect those who died before you. Also included is a section for helping you find a unmarked grave.
FindAGrave
Find a Grave is the best place on the internet to look for burial and other final disposition information for your family, friends and famous people. At Find a Grave you’ll find details about cemeteries and individual memorials for many people buried in those cemeteries. Memorials generally include birth, death and burial information and may include pictures, biographies, family information and more.
BillionGraves
BillionGraves is the world's largest resource for searchable GPS cemetery data, and is growing bigger and better every day. Search our free index for family and link records to your favorite familytree resource. We've partnered with great companies like FamilySearch, MyHeritage and Findmypast. Whatever you find on BillionGraves is copied onto our partner sites!
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery's ANC Explorer, enables families, visitors and the public to locate gravesites, events or other points of interest throughout the cemetery; view front-and-back headstone photos and points of interest; and receive directions to these locations. The latest version also includes self-guided tours, easy access to general information, and provides the ability to save searched burial records to a mobile device.
Internment.net
This website contains 25+ million cemetery records, transcripts, and burial registers, from tens of thousands of cemeteries across the world, all contributed by genealogists, cemeteries, government agencies, and private organizations.
Google.com
Enter the first and last name of your ancestor, the city or county you think they may be buried in, and the word, “cemetery” and click search.