Why I Use Archives.com and the Addition of 5 Million U.S. Vital Records

Have you ever tried Archives.com? I hear plenty of pros and cons about the value of Archives.com from others, however, I have been a subscriber for many years and I find the use of Archives.com vital when doing family history descendancy research, locating distant family members, friends and fellow high school graduates for reunions. I use a combination of obituaries, newspapers, and other records from Archives.com to help me locate and identify cousins. Not all cousins are involved in family history and genealogy work so I try to track them down and find them on social networking sites and make contact.

Many, many years ago, I volunteered to keep track of our fellow graduates from high school so we can make contact for reunions. With 650+ graduates from my class it can be a challenge to track them all down for reunions and other activities. A challenge is what happens when you volunteer to take on that responsibility, however, my success rate is really great since I started using Archives.com!

Archives.com has a great selection of historic newspapers, vital record indexes, military records, yearbooks, obituaries, cemetery listings and census records, besides the living people search that searches public records. There is also a learning center with plenty of articles from some well-respected genealogists and all the information you need to order original documents. And, you can create a family tree if you want.

Here is an example of the material they have. They just released more than 5 million birth, marriage, and death records to its members. If your family tree reaches into Alabama, Arizona, California or the District of Columbia, you will want to search in these records that were just added a few days ago. 

The new collections include:

Alabama, Marriage Index covers 1816 to 1957. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents. Coverage varies by county.

Arizona, Birth and Christening Index covers 1907 to 1917. Information may include the child's name, gender, names of the parents, birth date, birthplace, and christening date. Coverage varies by county.

Arizona, Marriage Index covers 1888 to 1908. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents. Coverage varies by county. The majority of records are from Arizona, Cochise, Maricopa, and Yavapai counties.

Arizona, Death and Burial Index covers 1910 to 1911 and 1933 to 1994. Information varies from county to county but may include the of the deceased, gender, parents' names, spouse's name, death date, place of death, date of burial, and place of burial. This collection includes records from Arizona, Cochise, Maricopa, and Yavapai counties.

California, Birth and Christening Index covers 1812 to 1988. Coverage varies by county. Information may include the child's name, gender, names of the parents, birth date, birthplace, and christening date.

California, Marriage Index covers 1850 to 1945. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents. Coverage varies by county.

District of Columbia, Birth and Christening Index covers 1830 to 1955. Information may include the child's name, gender, names of the parents, birth date, birthplace, and christening date.

District of Columbia, Marriage Index covers 1830 to 1921. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents.

District of Columbia, Death and Burial Index covers 1840 to 1964. Information varies from county to county but may include the of the deceased, gender, parents' names, spouse's name, death date, place of death, date of burial, and place of burial.

Archives.com members have access to more than 2.6 billion records. The Archives.com Collections page lists the latest additions. 

Disclaimer: Just for you info, I do not work for Archives nor Ancestry.com who purchased Archives just about two years ago.